TRENTON (1010 WINS) -- New Jersey reported its highest number of new coronavirus cases and total hospitalizations in months on Thursday.
Gov. Phil Murphy said there were 1,301 positive cases, calling it a "sobering number."
"The last day we were at that level of positives in a day was on May 29, and it was 1,394," Murphy said.
Of the new cases, 285 (or 22%) were in Ocean County and 128 (or roughly 10%) were in Monmouth County, the governor said.
"These two counties remain our greatest focus but far from our only focus," Murphy said, adding that Bergen, Essex, Middlesex, Passaic and Union counties reported more than 80 additional cases each.
The governor pointed to community spread. "We're seeing that right now in counties," he said. "People congregating in close quarters indoors is basically what we're dealing with."
The state's spot positivity rate for all tests on Oct. 4 was 3.69%. Murphy said the "silver lining" was that the state has been doing a lot of testing.
The governor said the total number of patients hospitalized was "another sobering number."
There were 422 COVID-positive patients and 230 patients awaiting tests in hospitals for a total of 652 hospitalizations—the highest number since Aug. 6.
"The number of COVID-positive patients and the total number of patients in our hospitals have been increasing over the past several days," Murphy said.
A total of 148 patients were intensive care, a number that "has also increased over the past several days," the governor said. He said 52 of those patients required ventilators.
There were also 11 more deaths, including seven people over the past seven days. The state's death toll is now 14,373, not including 1,788 probable deaths.
Murphy said the number of confirmed outbreaks traced to public schools in the state also rose to 16, accounting for a total of 58 cases of the virus.
That number is up from 11 outbreaks last week and is out of a total of more than 3,000 school buildings statewide.
"In terms of having a system with over 3,000 buildings, to have 16 of them now in early October is well within any reasonable expectation of where we'd be, and that's a good thing," Murphy said.
