New Jersey Among Top Five States with Highest Infection Rates

By Jhoana T. Merino-Martinez

News Editor

Just five states reported a whopping 44% of the U.S.’s new COVID-19 infections — and one of them is New Jersey, according to NJ.com.

Nearly 197,000 out of 452,000 national new infections in the span of a week came from New York, Michigan, Florida, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, ABC7 reports.

More alarmingly, these states account for 22% of the U.S. population, ABC7 continues.

The density of these states’ populations prompted the discussion for more vaccines to be distributed to these areas.

On Monday, Gov. Phil Murphy said that while New Jersey’s vaccine shipments increased 12% in the last week, it is still questionable whether it is enough.

“We constantly look at, OK, we know we’re going up, but are we going up at the rate we should be, particularly given the amount of cases we have?” Murphy said according to NJ.com.

As of April 8, the White House has not released a plan to shift vaccine doses based on population.

Two of FDU’s campuses are located in New Jersey, so this discussion of sending more vaccines to hot spots prompts students to consider this debate. With the fall expected to have mostly in-person or hybrid courses, would the state’s resources be enough to ensure the FDU community’s protection?

COVID-19 Numbers

From yesterday to today, there was an increase of 4,241 new cases in New Jersey, with 527 cases from Bergen county.