New Jersey surpasses 1,500 deaths: ‘We’re not at any plateau’

New Jersey surpassed 1,500 deaths related to the novel coronavirus on Wednesday, Gov. Phil Murphy (D) said as he warned the public that his state has not reached a plateau in the number of cases. 

New Jersey reported 275 additional deaths, the highest single-day increase, bringing its total number of fatalities to 1,504. 

Wednesday’s death toll surpassed the record set the day before of 232 fatalities. 

Murphy also reported 3,088 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the state’s total to 47,373. 

“Even if the rate of our increase is lessening, which it’s hard to argue it hasn’t over the past week, we have two realities that we cannot escape. One is it is still increasing,” Murphy said at a briefing. “So with all due respect to this notion that we’ve found some plateau, we’re not at any plateau.”

Murphy added that “we need to continue to be absolutely vigilant” in terms of social distancing and tighten rather than loosen restrictions. 

“I don’t say that with any amount of joy, it brings me no joy to say that,” Murphy said. 

New Jersey is one of the hardest-hit states by the coronavirus pandemic, second only to New York in the number of cases. 

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) similarly announced Wednesday the state’s largest single-day death toll, with 779 deaths. At the same briefing, Cuomo said the infection curve in New York is flattening, suggesting social distancing measures are working. 

But he also stressed the need to keep mitigation measures in place. 

“There is no doubt that we are now bending the curve, and there is no doubt that we can’t stop doing what we are doing,” Cuomo said.