New Jersey now has 5,368 coronavirus deaths as the total number of cases climbed to 99,989 on Thursday, though state officials continue to say they are seeing hopeful signs of the outbreak stabilizing.

Gov. Phil Murphy said the latest numbers include about 307 new deaths and 4,227 new cases.

“We continue to see the curve of new COVID-19 cases remain significantly flat, even with today’s slight uptick in cases," Murphy said during his daily press briefing in Trenton. "As we map the outbreak across the state, we continue to see a slowing in the rate of spread.”

Murphy said as the total cases near 100,000 — a mark he expects the state to pass Friday — it’s important to note that thousands of residents have likely recovered.

“This is a cumulative number. Our first positive case announced on March 4," Murphy said. "Of the 100,000 total cases, roughly 46,000 have now exited two-week incubation window. Even as we prepared for tomorrow, there are tens of thousands of residents who have now likely defeated the virus.”

But Murphy added that the latest numbers show New Jersey residents should prepare for his near-lockdown restrictions to continue for at least a few more weeks.

“We can’t ease up one bit on our social distancing," the governor said. “We need to see more progress and more slowing.”

It remains difficult to get a complete picture of how many people in New Jersey currently have COVID-19 or how quickly it’s spreading. That’s because the state is testing only symptomatic people, test results has been backed up for up to seven days, and the state has not reported significant increases in daily testing.

Murphy has said New Jersey needs to establish broader testing, contact tracing, and plans to quarantine the infected before officials can begin to lift restrictions.

“We are working as fast as we can on all of the above,” he said.

Murphy also stressed Thursday that a new saliva test developed by Rutgers University could more than double the amount of daily testing in the state, with results in less than 48 hours. That could be key to reopening the state’s economy.

The governor has said his administration is paying close attention to the number of patients hospitalized with the coronavirus in New Jersey as key indicator for when the outbreak has slowed.

As of 10 p.m. Wednesday, the state reported 7,240 patients at New Jersey’s 71 hospitals, a decline for the third consecutive day and down 12.7% from the peak in hospitalizations of 8,293 patients on April 14. Those numbers include those who tested positive and suspected cases.

Of those 7,240 hospitalized, 1,990 were in critical or intensive care and 1,462 were on ventilators.

The 99,989 positive coronavirus test include 13,769 cases at longterm care facilities.

At least 782 people were admitted to hospitals and 752 people were discharged in the 24 hours leading to Wednesday night, though information from three of the state’s hospitals was missing from that total.

More than 100,000 residents have tested negative for the coronavirus, according to the state.

The county-by-county number for positive test and deaths include:

BERGEN: 14,049 with 907 deaths

HUDSON: 12,645 with 606 deaths

ESSEX: 11,811 with 932 deaths

UNION: 10,935 with 515 deaths

PASSAIC: 9,874 with 350 deaths

MIDDLESEX: 9,530 with 396 deaths

OCEAN: 5,444 with 286 deaths

MONMOUTH: 5,238 with 260 deaths

MORRIS: 4,680 with 324 deaths

MERCER: 2,991 with 163 deaths

SOMERSET: 2,798 with 196 deaths

CAMDEN: 2,683 with 104 deaths

BURLINGTON: 1,969 with 76 deaths

GLOUCESTER: 899 with 30 deaths

SUSSEX: 784 with 82 deaths

WARREN: 719 with 60 deaths

ATLANTIC: 544 with 30 deaths

HUNTERDON: 464 with 22 deaths

CUMBERLAND: 424 with 5 deaths

CAPE MAY: 236 with 16 deaths

SALEM: 164 with 6 deaths

Another 1,108 cases are under investigation to determine where the person resides.

The breakdown for deaths by race for cases where the information is available is:

53.6% White

20% Black

16% Hispanic

5.4% Asian

5% Other

CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Newsletter | Homepage

Murphy on Thursday also said it’s “too early to tell” what Memorial Day — a little more than a month away — will look like this year because of the pandemic. He said he’d be “very surprised” if there were typical parades.

Meanwhile, new figures Thursday show more than 858,000 New Jersey workers — a record number — have filed for unemployment benefits in the five weeks since aggressive social distancing began.

As of Thursday morning, more than 2.6 million people across the globe tested positive for the virus, according to a running tally by Johns Hopkins University. Of those, more than 184,000 have died and more than 721,000 have recovered.

NJ Advance Media staff writer Brent Johnson contributed to this report.

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