New Jersey’s deaths from the coronavirus increased to 1,003 as health officials announced Monday the total COVID-19 positive tests jumped to at least 41,090 in the last 24 hours, with the peak of the outbreak still likely weeks away.

The latest coronavirus numbers revealed on the state Department of Health’s website show 3,663 new coronavirus cases in the state and another 86 deaths.

“We pray and mourn with their families and friends,” Gov. Phil Murphy said at the Trenton War Memorial during his daily coronavirus press briefing. “It’s hard. It sucks. You don’t want to see one more person die, hear one more story.

“I know these numbers can be scary," Murphy added. "We cannot give in to fear or sadness. We must resolve to continue our fight together.”

The state also announced 47,942 people have now tested negative for COVID-19. Officials have not released how many residents have recovered from the illness.

Murphy continued his call for social distancing under his near-lockdown restrictions on non-essential travel and retail businesses.

“We are now two weeks into our most aggressive push for social distancing," the governor said. "We have to take it seriously.”

For the first time, Murphy shared projections of cases in the state that showed a peak in cases between April 19 and May 11, and a peak in hospitalizations between April 10 and April 28. The best case scenario shows the state peaking at 86,000 under continued social distancing.

The New Jersey Department of Health provided charts of the projections for coronavirus cases and hospitalizations.

The partial county-by-county breakdown of coronavirus cases and deaths as of Monday includes:

Bergen County: 6,862 with 200 deaths

Essex County: 4,493 with 186 deaths

Hudson County: 4,395 with 92 deaths

Passaic County: 3,756 with 53 deaths

Union County: 3,685 with 78 deaths

Middlesex County: 3,263 with 87 deaths

Monmouth County: 2,545 with 62 deaths

Ocean County: 2,374 with 71 deaths

Morris County: 1,956 with 60 deaths

Somerset County: 902 with 31 deaths

Mercer County: 740 with 19 deaths

Burlington County: 646 with 11 deaths

Camden County: 645 with 8 deaths

Sussex County: 292 with 11 deaths

Gloucester County: 279 with 3 deaths

Warren County: 215 with 7 deaths

Hunterdon County: 211 with 2 deaths

Atlantic County: 132 with 1 death

Cape May County: 85 with 3 deaths

Cumberland County: 64 with 2 deaths

Salem County: 29 with 2 deaths

Another 3,821 cases and 13 deaths remain under investigation to determine where the patient resides.

CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Businesses that are open | Homepage

On Saturday, Murphy announced the state’s death toll from the virus already surpassed the number of New Jersey residents who died in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The governor also warned Sunday New Jersey’s battle against the coronavirus will get worse before things get better and that the state should brace for what will be “a really challenging” couple of weeks ahead. Murphy and state officials had spent the better part of the day “trying to get our arms around” when the state could expect to hit the apex in the number of positive cases and the number of people reported having died each day from COVID-19.

Murphy has said the effects of the pandemic will “spill meaningfully into the summer.”

The virus has infected nearly 1.3 million people across the world, according to a running tally by Johns Hopkins University as of Monday morning. Of those, more than 70,000 have died and more than 270,249 have recovered.

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

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