New Jersey now has at least 3,675 known cases of the coronavirus, including 44 deaths, as officials announced Tuesday an increase of 846 positive tests and 17 deaths — the largest single-day increase in statewide deaths since the pandemic began.

“This is a sobering report,” Gov. Phil Murphy said at Rutgers-Newark during his daily coronavirus press briefing, noting that New Jersey ranks second in the nation for number of cases, after New York.

“We’re at war,” Murphy added. “There’s no question about it.”

The new deaths from COVID-19 — the illness causes by the virus — include cases in Bergen (5), Morris (3), Essex (3), Hudson (2) and one each in Monmouth, Camden, Passaic and Union counties, said state Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli.

Nine of the deaths were associated with long-term care facilities. There are at least 19 long-term care facilities in the state with patients who have tested positive, Persichilli said.

Persichilli also revealed for the first time the rate of positive versus negative tests from seven laboratories reporting to the state. Of the 12,000 tests that have been done at those labs, 3,600 have been positive — a rate of 27%.

“That’s a really important rate," Persichilli said, noting the information can steer the state’s plan for medical care going forward. "That will help us in our predictive modeling.”

Officials have not said how many people have been hospitalized with or recovered from the illness in New Jersey, which has 9 million residents. It’s also unknown how many residents may have the virus but have yet to be tested.

The partial list of county-by-county cases includes:

Bergen County: 701

Essex County: 342

Monmouth County: 288

Middlesex County: 277

Union County: 246

Hudson County: 234

Passaic County: 216

Morris County: 204

Ocean County: 180

Somerset County: 102

Mercer County: 58

Camden County: 51

Burlington County: 42

Hunterdon County: 25

Gloucester County: 19

Sussex County: 18

Warren County: 15

Atlantic County: 6

Cape May County: 3

Cumberland County: 2

Salem County: 1

Another 645 cases are still under review to determine where the person resides, state health officials said.

Officials have said they expect the number of positive tests to continue to increase in New Jersey as they see more evidence of “community spread” and testing continues to ramp up in the state.

But they emphasize that more testing will give them a better sense of how to respond to the outbreak.

“The more facts we have, the more we can make decisions,” Murphy said.

In an effort to slow the spread of the virus, 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.

President Donald Trump said Tuesday he’d like to reopen the U.S. economy my mid-April. Trump has said in recent days: “We can’t let the cure be worse than the problem."

Murphy, a Democrat, stopped short of criticizing the Republican president. But Murphy also said he does not plan to scale back New Jersey’s response.

“Given the enormity of the impact on the economy, I can understand folks who want to find a fast and as short a road back to normalcy as possible," the governor said. "We’ve got to do it responsibly, and I don’t think anyone is suggesting otherwise, but we’re not there yet and we’re going to stay the course.”

Murphy said he does not know when the number of cases in New Jersey will peak or when the state will return to normal because he announced the most aggressive actions to limit human interaction — including a near-lockdown of the state — just three days ago.

“We need a longer runway to get a handle on this,” he saids.

There are now government-run drive-thru coronavirus testing centers in Paramus and Holmdel, as well as a number of sites run by county agencies, hospitals and private companies. Both state-run testing sites closed early Tuesday after quickly hitting testing capacity.

Meanwhile, officials announced Tuesday that four new pop-up field hospitals are on their way from the federal government to help deal with the surging cases. They will be located in Secaucus, Edison, and Atlantic City, with a fourth location to be determined.

Plus, New Jersey First Lady Tammy Murphy announced a new fundraising effort called the New Jersey Pandemic Relief Fund. The video launching the effort included Jon Bon Jovi, Stephen Colbert, Danny DeVito, Whoopi Goldberg, Carli Lloyd, Charlie Puth, Bruce Springsteen, and Jon Stewart.

The virus has infected more than 414,000 people and killed more than 8,500 worldwide, while more than 107,000 have recovered, according to a running tally by Johns Hopkins University.

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

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