State officials announced Thursday the coronavirus outbreak in New Jersey has now claimed the lives of 7,228 residents, while the total number of cases increased to 118,652 — though the more than two-week decline in COVID-19 patients at the state’s hospitals continued to provide hope that the peak surge has passed.

The deaths reported Thursday show are an increase of 460 residents from the previous day, the highest single-day death toll in the outbreak. The numbers also include 2,633 new cases, the fourth consecutive day that less than 3,000 new positive tests were confirmed.

The latest updates come a day after Gov. Phil Murphy announced that New Jersey state and county parks, as well as golf courses, will be permitted to reopen at dawn Saturday. It is the first major loosening of near-lockdown restrictions to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

“This upcoming weekend, with the reopening of our parks and golf courses, is a crucial test," Murphy said Thursday. “We are placing tremendous trust in you to keep up your social distancing. I will not hesitate to reverse course and close parks again. Do not let a minority of knuckleheads ruin this.”

Murphy gave the warning hours after meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House to discuss more widespread testing and financial aid to the state to help recover from the pandemic.

The governor announced Trump’s administration agreed to send 550,000 testing kits to the state — which Murphy said will help the state double its daily testing capacity, a key component of the state’s plan to begin gradually opening the state.

Murphy has cautioned the number of deaths reported Thursday does not necessarily reflect those who died from coronavirus in the last 24 hours as there are sometimes delays in confirming the deceased had the illness.

State Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli said officials have been reviewing death records and adding past cases to the totals as part of the reason for the increase.

Meanwhile, the total number of cases is cumulative and does not reflect the likely thousands of people who have recovered from COVID-19, officials said.

New Jersey health officials reported 6,137 patients at New Jersey’s 71 hospitals being treated for confirmed or suspected coronavirus cases as of 10 p.m. on Wednesday. That’s the lowest number of hospitalizations since the state began reporting that information on April 4 and down 26% from the peak of 8,293 patients on April 14. Patient deaths, however, also account for some of the decline in hospitalizations.

Murphy has repeatedly held up the hospitalization numbers as a key real-time indicator of the coronavirus outbreak and made it a benchmark he plans to use in weighing when to start rolling back near-lockdown restrictions he ordered to slow the spread of the virus.

The number of patients at New Jersey hospitals with confirmed or suspected coronavirus cases has continued to decline since April 14.

The county-by-county cases and deaths include:

Bergen County: 15,610 with 1,136 deaths

Hudson County: 14,916 with 798 deaths

Essex County: 13,682 with 1,186 deaths

Union County: 12,578 with 690 deaths

Passaic County: 12,449 with 573 deaths

Middlesex County: 11,715 with 571 deaths

Ocean County: 6,375 with 397 deaths

Monmouth County: 6,033 with 341 deaths

Morris County: 5,287 with 413 deaths

Mercer County: 3,937 with 231 deaths

Camden County: 3,519 with 147 deaths

Somerset County: 3,464 with 270 deaths

Burlington County: 2,690 with 130 deaths

Gloucester County: 1,251 with 46 deaths

Atlantic County: 964 with 41 deaths

Sussex County: 921 with 103 deaths

Warren County: 903 with 82 deaths

Cumberland County: 723 with 12 deaths

Hunterdon County: 603 with 29 deaths

Cape May County: 323 with 22 deaths

Salem County: 231 with 10 deaths

Another 478 cases are under investigation to determine where the person resides.

New Jersey health officials have taken a regional approach to monitoring the spread of the disease. While the number of patients at North Jersey and Central Jersey hospitals has declined or leveled off, the hospitals in South Jersey continue to see patient numbers climb.

While coronavirus cases have declined at North Jersey hospitals and flattened at Central Jersey hospitals, the number of patients continues to increase in South Jersey.

CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Newsletter | Homepage

Murphy has said New Jerseyans could expect to be under lockdown for weeks, though he said Monday it’s not likely to spill into months.

As of Thursday afternoon, more than 3.2 million people across the globe tested positive for the virus, according to a running tally by Johns Hopkins University. Of those, more than 229,000 have died and more than 1 million have recovered.

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Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com.