As of Tuesday, New Jersey is nearing the 500,000 mark of recorded COVID-19 cases since the beginning of the pandemic; with the current rate of cases reported daily, the state will surpass 500k by Wednesday.  With nearly 9M residents living in the state, that’s over 5% of the entire population.

The statewide COVID-19 count stands at 499,636 cases and 17,361 fatalities (and 2,021 probable fatalities) as of Tuesday; the viral transmission rate is .94.