UPDATE: Coronavirus peak in hard-hit N.J. counties could be 3 weeks away, health official says

New Jersey’s total known cases of the coronavirus rose to at least 4,402, including at least 62 known deaths as officials announced another 736 new positive test results Wednesday during an afternoon briefing on the expanding outbreak.

“These numbers are sobering, but not surprising to us,” Gov. Phil Murphy said at the Trenton War Memorial during the press briefing. “We’ve been one of the most aggressive testing states in America.”

The 18 new deaths include four in Ocean County, three in Essex, two in Monmouth and one each in Bergen, Burlington, Cumberland, Hudson, Middlesex, Morris, Passaic, Somerset and Union counties. The range in age for those cases was 52 to 93-years-old, said Judy Persichilli, commissioner of the state Department of Health. Seven were woman and 11 were men.

Murphy said more cases are expected and the state continues to work to expand hospital capacity. New Jersey — which has 9 million residents — has the second-highest number of coronavirus cases after New York.

“We must be ready for the time when the surge comes," Murphy said. "We have known that we will need to increase hospital capacity. We are in this fight to save lives.”

A partial county-by-county breakdown on the cases includes:

Bergen County: 819

Essex County: 381

Middlesex County: 316

Monmouth County: 313

Union County: 262

Hudson County: 260

Passaic County: 255

Morris County: 223

Ocean County: 222

Somerset County: 117

Mercer County: 82

Camden County: 61

Burlington County: 48

Sussex County: 27

Hunterdon County: 25

Gloucester County: 23

Warren County: 18

Atlantic County: 9

Cape May County: 4

Cumberland County: 3

Salem County: 1

Another 933 cases remain under investigation to determine the location where the person resides, according to the state tracking website.

Officials also said of the 14,000 tests administered in the state, 4,000 have come back positive for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus — a rate of 29%. The others have been negative.

Even if you’ve had a negative test, you should stay home and practice social distancing, officials said.

Officials note that the more testing is done, the more they will know how to respond to the virus.

They have not released numbers on how many people have been hospitalized with or recovered from the illness. It’s also unknown how many people who haven’t been tested have the virus.

Murphy said Wednesday 80 to 90 percent of cases across the globe are “moderate to mild.”

In addition, state Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said Wednesday the peak of cases in three of New Jersey’s hardest-hit counties — Bergen, Essex, and Hudson — could be three weeks away.

Meanwhile, Murphy announced he is ordering children day care facilities to close by April 1, unless they offer services solely to essential workers.

The governor also issued a sharp rebuke to those saying older people should be willing to die so the U.S. economy can be reopened.

“We will fight to save every single life,” he said.

In an effort to slow the virus’ spread, Murphy has closed all schools in the state, ordered people to stay at home except for necessary travel, banned social gatherings, and ordered non-essential retail businesses to close until further notice. Officials have promised to prosecute those who violate the orders.

Murphy said Wednesday he does not plan to end those closures any time soon because doing so would “only throw gasoline onto the fire."

Murphy has also announced a way for workers to report companies where people who are able to do their jobs from home were told by their employers to report to the office. The governor said New Jersey employers should not be forcing their workers to go to offices if those people are able to do their jobs remotely, per his executive order.

The virus has infected more than 458,000 people and killed more than 20,800 people across the globe, according to a running tally by Johns Hopkins University. Of those cases, more than 113,00 people have recovered.

NJ Advance Media staff writer Brent Johnson contributed to this report.

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Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewArco or Facebook.

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