Two more people in Monmouth County, including a Red Bank Regional High School student, have tested positive for the coronavirus, bringing the total number of cases in the county to four, health officials announced Wednesday.

State officials said Wednesday that they didn't have information on where the new patients are from or how they are suspected to have contracted COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus.

One of the new cases is a student at Red Bank Regional High School, prompting officials there to temporarily close the school and move all classes online, according to statements from Assemblywoman Serena DiMaso and state Sen. Declan O'Scanlon, R-Monmouth.

The student likely contracted the virus from a previously confirmed COVID-19 case, officials said.

The other case was identified by county officials Thursday as a 66-year-old woman from Hazlet, the second township resident to test positive. An adult medical day care center in Marlboro closed after officials said both COVID-19 patients from Hazlet were clients there.

The two from Monmouth County are among eight new presumptive positive cases of the virus in New Jersey, Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said at a news conference. She also reported four new cases in Bergen County and two in Middlesex County. The total number of cases in the state is now 23.

The new cases are three females and five males, ranging in age from 17 to 66, Persichilli said. Two of the patients had no exposure to a known case and hadn't visited a place connected to an outbreak, she said.

Health officials continued to stress that the individual risk to residents remains low and the rise in cases was anticipated.

The virus is increasingly disrupting daily life in the state as colleges planned to move classes online and more public events were canceled.

The World Health Organization officially declared the virus a global pandemic Wednesday, a largely symbolic label that indicates a new illness has spread widely around the world. The number of cases nationwide now tops 1,000.

Twenty-two people had been tested for the virus in New Jersey over the past day, Persichilli said. She said 37 possible cases in the state remain under investigation.

SEE: Coronavirus: Everything you need to know

Health officials are placing the two patients who did not have a known exposure to the virus under further investigation, as those cases could indicate that the virus is now spreading person-to-person within the state. Officials did not say where those patients lived.

“Community spread indicates that the coronavirus is amongst us, and we have an expectation that that may be the case," Persichilli told reporters.

Officials announced the first two cases in Monmouth County — an 83-year-old woman from Hazlet and a 27-year-old man from Little Silver — on Monday.

The woman from Hazlet was a resident of a senior living facility and was being treated at Bayshore Medical Center in Holmdel, officials said Monday. She first experienced symptoms on March 3.

Officials said the man from Little Silver likely was exposed to the virus at an employee conference for the biopharmaceutical firm Biogen in Boston late last month. He had sought treatment at Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank, but officials said Monday he was not hospitalized. He first showed symptoms Feb. 29.

The man has a sibling who is a student at Red Bank Regional High School. The district closed the school Tuesday and Wednesday as a precaution. The district announced it will switch to a "virtual school instructional plan" beginning Thursday after one the its students tested positive.

While classes will be taught online, officials said the days would count toward state requirements that students attend 180 days each school year. Extracurricular actives and sports are suspended.

“These sorts of decisions are never made lightly, and school officials have been presented with copious information and guidance from the Department of Health and the medical community in making the decision to close the high school," DiMaso said in a statement.

RELATED: Monmouth and Ocean school closings, early dismissals, event postponements

The Monmouth County Regional Health Commission met with personnel from Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank and town and school officials from Red Bank and surrounding municipalities Wednesday afternoon.

The health commission decided not to recommend the closure of elementary and middle schools that feed into Red Bank Regional. Officials are working to identify people who have been in close contact with the student who tested positive.

The Biogen conference is connected to about 170 presumptive positive COVID-19 cases nationwide, officials have said. All attendees of the conference have been asked to self-quarantine.

A 69-year-old horse trainer from Bergen County, who had a number of underlying health conditions, became the first person in the state to die from the coronavirus Tuesday.

The Monmouth County Division of Consumer Affairs urged consumers who find exceedingly inflated prices on facemasks, hand sanitizer, cleaning products, water bottles or other products in high demand because of the virus to contact the agency.

Gov. Phil Murphy's emergency declaration, announced Monday, gives county and state agencies the authority to act to prevent price gouging.

The Ocean County Health Department reported that three residents have been tested, one came back negative and the results on the other two were awaited.

“We have three more that we are awaiting approval from the state to submit the swabs,” said Freeholder Gerry P. Little, who is liaison to the county health department.

Ocean County Health Officer Daniel E. Regenye said five patients were hospitalized.

“So, they are in isolation, whether or not they have the coronavirus, they are not spreading it,” Little said.

Hackensack Meridian Health announced it is suspending in-person visitation to its nursing and rehabilitation centers across the state. Family and friends should call their loved one's facility for updates, the company said.

“While there are no COVID-19/coronavirus cases at any of our nursing and rehabilitation facilities at this time, this restriction is to help protect the health of our facility residents,” David W. Varga, the network's chief physician executive, said in a statement. “It’s important to take proactive measures in order to protect a population who is particularly vulnerable to severe disease and complications from COVID-19.”

The company already has limited visitation to its 14 hospitals to two at a time with no one under 12 permitted.

The number of COVID-19 cases worldwide surpassed 125,000 Wednesday with more than 4,500 deaths.

RELATED: Symptoms to look for, when to get tested

There is currently neither a vaccine nor an approved treatment for the new, or novel coronavirus. While younger people may experience the illness as a bad cold with a fever, the concern is that older people and those who have additional medical conditions will develop a more severe form of COVID-19.

As the disease spreads widely in the population, that could lead to a high number of patients requiring hospitalization for pneumonia or acute lung problems that require the use of a ventilator to breathe, as well as death. Data from China show that about 15% of people who contract the coronavirus infection develop more severe illness, requiring hospitalization.

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Contributing: Staff Writers Michael Diamond, Erik Larsen and Susanne Cervenka.

Andrew Goudsward covers breaking news. Contact him at agoudsward@gannettnj.com; 732-897-4555 or @AGoudsward on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Coronavirus in NJ: Two more cases in Monmouth County, including high school student