Governor Phil Murphy reported another 3,627 COVID-19 positive cases for a statewide total of 54,588 COVID-19 positive cases. As of last night, 7,570 people in New Jersey were hospitalized either with COVID-19 or suspected of having it, and of those, 1,679 are in critical care and 1,663 on ventilators. For the nearly 24-hour period, hospitals discharged 682 people originally diagnosed with the virus.

“We now be seeing the sad end of some of the folks who were infected serveral weeks ago before us. …We don’t want to spike any footballs,” said Murphy. “We have to keep with social distancing.

“We’re not in the endzone here. We’re not even close to the endzone.”

Since yesterday the state processed the deaths of 233 New Jerseyans, bringing the statewide death total to 1,932.

The governor lamented the impossibility of families coming together to celebrate Easter this weekend.

“Instead of heading to church, many of us will fire up our laptops for a live stream service,” said Murphy, giving a Friday morning version of his daily briefing in the interest of observing Good Friday.

Department of Corrections Commissioner Marcus Hicks made an appearance at the governor’s briefing today.

“We have taken significant strides to combat this pandemic,” the commissioner said, referring to the virus.

To date, 129 corrections department staff members have tested positive.

Twenty (20) inmates tested positive.

The system has sustained one inmate fatality.