SOUTH JERSEY (KYW Newsradio) — The omicron surge continues to wane in New Jersey, but Gov. Phil Murphy says that’s no reason for people to forego COVID-19 vaccines and boosters. And, state health officials warn that young children continue to be at risk.
Although COVID-19 case counts are down by two-thirds over the last two weeks, and hospitalizations have dropped by nearly 1,200 in the last week, Murphy said New Jersey is not free of omicron.
“No one should be complacent here,” he said. “Even though these numbers are trending very positively, and they are, they’re still higher than anything we had encountered, even through last winter’s surge and the delta variant surge from last summer.”
At the governor’s COVID-19 briefing Monday, state Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli reminded the public that COVID-19 can have severe consequences for children, as it isn’t always a benign illness for them.
“There have been four COVID-associated child deaths, including three infants, since Christmas,” she noted. Since the start of the pandemic, 12 children have died of COVID-19.
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With children 4 and under still not eligible for vaccines, she said it’s incumbent on adults to keep young children away from crowds and for adults to get vaccinated and boosted.
Persichilli said only a little more than 49% of eligible New Jerseyans had been boosted.
Murphy added that the downward omicron trend may lead people to believe that they don’t need to get their shots, but no one knows what the virus will do next.
“The good news is, the numbers are getting better. The bad news is, it probably makes it more difficult to convince people to get boosted because they think we’re getting out of the woods,” he said.
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