A spike in cases in recent weeks has left New Jersey on the cusp of new restrictions meant to keep the coronavirus at bay, officials said on Friday, as the state surpassed 2,000 new cases on a third consecutive day for the first time since early May.
The climbing daily case counts follow increases in the daily positive test rate in New Jersey, an early epicenter of the pandemic. That figure, a proxy for the virus’s prevalence in the community, stood at 6 percent earlier this week — above the 5 percent figure that public health authorities consider problematic, and nearly three times as high as the state’s rate in mid-September.
By contrast, officials in New York, which was also hit hard by the pandemic’s first wave and imposed a strict lockdown to fight it, said on Friday that the positive rate there was around 2 percent and being pushed up by so-called hot spots in several regions.
New Jersey’s central and northern sections were being hit the hardest, data showed.
Gov. Philip D. Murphy, speaking at a news conference where the virus figures were announced, did not specify what measures might be introduced or when, although he did say that action was coming soon.
“We’re working on making sure that we’ve got a right balance between strategic, scalpel-like actions and some broader actions that we will almost certainly take sooner than later,” Mr. Murphy said.
— Ed Shanahan The New York Times