The coronavirus outbreak in New Jersey continued to accelerate with a big jump in new deaths Thursday, bringing the statewide total to 537 deaths and 25,590 coronavirus cases.

Officials reported 182 new deaths and 3,489 new positive tests in the last 24 hours.

The former marks a new one-day high in coronavirus deaths for the state, doubling the 91 officials reported Wednesday.

“We have lost another 182 members of our New Jersey family,” Gov. Phil Murphy said at the Trenton War Memorial during his daily coronavirus press briefing. “Our prayers and thoughts and sympathies go out to their family and friends.”

New Jersey, a state of 9 million people, has the second-most cases among U.S. states, after New York.

Murphy stressed that the new deaths and cases reported did not all come in the past 24 hours, noting there’s a backlog of test results as long as two weeks.

But the 182 new deaths are more than the sum of the first 15 days since the state reported its first death.

“I know these numbers are stark,” Murphy said. “They are certainly sobering. We can lower these numbers, and we will. The way we do that is aggressively and continuously practicing our social distancing."

Of the state’s 537 total deaths, 47% have been people over the age of 80, officials said. And 76 of the deaths have been from residents of long-term care facilities. New Jersey has 375 long-term care facilities, and 110 of the have at least one confirmed coronavirus case.

Today's context behind the numbers:

👉206,000 new unemployment claims = Populations of Perth Amboy + Plainfield + Bloomfield + Jackson.

👉25,590 total coronavirus positives = ~Population of Ridgewood.

👉537 total coronavirus deaths = ~Population of Deal. — Kevin Whitmer (@kevinwhitmer) April 2, 2020

The state also said 33,520 people in the state have tested negative for COVID-19.

That, Murphy said, means about 6 out of 10 people have gotten negative results — though he conceded New Jersey so far has been testing only people showing symptoms of the virus.

“The positive test results do give us a window into how best we can manage this,” the governor said.

There’s a backup at getting test results that could be 10 to 14, state Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said.

“All of the labs are overwhelmed at this point,” Persichilli said.

Murphy also noted that it’s been only 12 days since he instituted his most stringent social-distancing move: his stay-at-home order.

“We’re still a week or so away from really knowing what those last set of actions we took, what impact those have on the positives,” the governor said.

Meanwhile, Murphy said the state has to continue testing only symptomatic people, even though the federal Centers for Disease Control has said asymptomatic people can spread the disease. He said the state doesn’t have the supplies it needs to do so.

“In a perfect world, that’s probably something we’d be doing,” Murphy said. “We have to play the hand we’ve been dealt.”

Persichilli said she did not have figures for how many people who have tested positive for COVID-19 in the state have been hospitalized, compared to how many are home or recovering.

“Once we have that, I can share that,” she said. “We just don’t have it now.”

Officials say about 80% of people with the virus have mild symptoms and are likely to recover, while about 15% of cases are more serious.

The partial county-by-county breakdown of COVID-19 cases in New Jersey includes:

Bergen County: 3,494 with 75 deaths

Essex County: 2,262 with 69 deaths

Hudson County: 1,910 with 29 deaths

Union County: 1,661 with 29 deaths

Passaic County: 1,494 with 15 deaths

Middlesex County: 1,493 with 27 deaths

Monmouth County: 1,301 with 24 deaths

Ocean County: 1,209 with 23 deaths

Morris County: 942 with 25 deaths

Somerset County: 472 with 15 deaths

Mercer County: 333 with 3 deaths

Camden County: 289 with 3 deaths

Burlington County: 255 with 5 deaths

Sussex County: 158 with 6 deaths

Gloucester County: 149 with 2 deaths

Hunterdon County: 117 with no deaths

Warren County: 96 with 3 deaths

Atlantic County: 40 with no deaths

Cumberland County: 27 with 1 deaths

Cape May County: 22 with no deaths

Salem County: 19 with 1 death

The breakdown does not include 4,866 cases and 4 deaths that are still under investigation to determine where those people reside.

Officials said they also don’t have hard numbers for how many people in the state have recovered from the virus — though Murphy stressed that up to 85% those infected get only moderate symptoms and “overwhelmingly get better,” while about 15% are more high-risk.

“We’ll fight to save every single one of them,” Murphy said. “But no question people are getting better.”

Officials said they may be able to supply more data on that in the future. But Murphy said: “We don’t want to give you data we can’t hang our hat on.”

The update comes a day after officials announced a spate hospitals in the northern half of New Jersey were beginning to see a surge in patients days earlier than expected.

That has caused numerous hospitals to reach “divert” status — meaning whole hospitals or units temporarily reached capacity and had to direct new patients to other facilities.

Persichilli said there were four hospitals Wednesday night on “divert” status — down from seven the day before.

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

The health commissioner said she expects New Jersey to be able to handle the surge, but she stressed that more ventilators are needed. President Donald Trump’s administration has supplied the state with 650 ventilators, but officials say they need 1,650 more.

Murphy announced Thursday that he signed an executive order to give Col. Patrick Callahan, superintendent of New Jersey’s State Police, the authority to commandeer much-needed medical supplies and equipment from companies and people in the state that have not yet donated it to health-care facilities to help battle the outbreak.

Meanwhile, Murphy on Thursday morning toured the first of four pop-up field hospitals the federal government is building in New Jersey to help create more hospital space. The site, at the Meadowlands in Secaucus, will have a “soft opening” Monday, Murphy said.

A second field hospital, in Edison, is slated to open April 8, while a third, in Atlantic City, is scheduled for April 14, Callahan said.

Murphy has put New Jersey into near-lockdown to increase social distancing, help slow the virus’ spread, and prevent hospitals from becoming overloaded. He’s ordered residents to stay at home, banned social gatherings, closed schools, and mandated all non-essential businesses close.

The governor said Wednesday night that New Jersey residents should expect the fallout from the virus to drag “deep into May.”

During an interview Thursday afternoon on CNN, Murphy was asked if he expects effects of the virus to linger through August, like New York says is likely.

“I don’t know I got a specific date for you,” he said on “The Situation Room.” "But we know this is not gonna be tomorrow or next week or even probably a month from now. This is a marathon.

As of Thursday morning, COVID-19 has infected more than 956,000 people across the world, according to a running tally by Johns Hopkins University. Of those, more than 48,000 have died and more than 202,000 have recovered.

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Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01.

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