More than 7,300 residents in New Jersey are being treated at hospitals, including patients who have tested positive for coronavirus and patients under investigation. Health officials say the number of hospitalizations could peak very soon.

 

State Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli says the state could hit its peak with 14,400 COVID-19 hospitalizations in just two to three days -- nearly double the current total.

Currently, 1,523 people are in critical care with 1,551 on ventilators. During the peak, nearly 3,000 will need critical care. Persichilli says she has never seen anything like this.

 

"I'm struck by the number of people who require hospitalization and decline fairly quickly,” says Persichilli. “I've never quite seen that, and even though all of the other pandemics that we've seen certainly have a percentage that don’t do well at all, as you know, but the amount of people coming into the hospital that immediately need pulmonary support and respiratory ventilation is what I've never quite seen."

Persichilli says the state has reached its goal of increasing the number of critical care beds at hospitals and she believes facilities should be able to handle the incoming patients.