Cory Booker tests positive for COVID-19, has mild symptoms

TRENTON – U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., has tested positive for COVID-19.

Booker said he has gotten a vaccine booster shot and that his symptoms are relatively mild. He said he began feeling symptoms Saturday and got his test results Sunday.

“Fortunately, my symptoms are relatively mild," Booker said in a news release and on Twitter. "I’m beyond grateful to have received two doses of vaccine and, more recently, a booster -- I’m certain that without them I would be doing much worse. I encourage everyone who is eligible to get vaccinated and boosted.”

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., also announced Sunday she had come down with COVID-19.

New Jersey is currently consistently registering some of its highest case counts of the pandemic, as the easily transmissible omicron variant layers on top of an increase already driven by the delta variant.

The positives announced by the state Department of Health on Sunday included 6,533 infections confirmed by PCR tests and 988 probable cases detected by antigen tests. That followed a combined 7,965 positives Saturday, 8,089 Friday and 7,637 Thursday.

There were 1,852 patients hospitalized with COVID in the state as of Sunday’s update, up 18% from a week earlier and the highest level in nearly eight months. There were 343 patients in intensive care, including 174 on ventilators.

Six additional COVID-related deaths were announced Sunday, after 33 were announced Saturday.

The website Covid Act Now calculates New Jersey’s current case rate at 62.4 cases a day per 100,000 residents over the last week, which other than the period from Jan. 7 to 18 is the highest recorded. The true infection levels from the early months of the pandemic are unknown, though, as tests were limited.

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New Jersey has the 14th highest rate of new cases among the states, according to Covid Act Now.

The highest rates are in Cape May, Sussex, Salem and Monmouth counties. But Bergen and Essex counties in the last couple of days have surged to their highest levels of known new infections.

Michael Symons is State House bureau chief for New Jersey 101.5. Contact him at michael.symons@townsquaremedia.com.

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