New Jersey is reporting nearly 4,000 COVID-19 cases Friday and 19 deaths. 

Officials say that Friday's COVID-19 numbers are comparable to those of December 2020, before vaccinations were made available.  State officials assume that this an early indicator of a post-Thanksgiving surge.

All eyes are still on the Omicron variant, as the delta variant continues to surge through the country.

As research continues to be done to understand the omicron variant, top medical experts, including the head of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention warn to keep the course when it comes to the Delta variant.

It is still the most prominent form of COVID-19 in New Jersey and in the United States.  

"Whether its Delta. Whether its Omicron. We still have same strategies, Which are wearing masks in public, trying to social distance as much as possible and making sure vaccinated and boosted, " said Dr. Henry Redel, Chief Infectious Disease at St. Peters University Hospital.

He further explained that it is so important to get these shots because immune systems will have a jumpstart on anything that is close to what the vaccine targeted, even if the booster shot is not a 100% match to the omicron variant.

Several doctors believe that, with that adaptive immunity, boosters can better protect people against the Delta, Omicron or whatever variant may come next.