Coronavirus Case Update As Brick Schools Plan For 4-Day Classes

BRICK, NJ — As the rate of coronavirus cases continues to slow, the Brick Township School District has announced it will move forward with plans to shift to four days a week of in-school instruction.

As of Sunday, Brick's number of new coronavirus cases was up just over 4 percent from Feb. 7, according to data from the Ocean County Health Department.

The announcement last week of the plan to shift to four days in school — a plan that was in the works in November and delayed when cases spiked during the holiday season — comes as a group of parents started a petition seeking a return to full-day, five days a week in school in the district. The petition, which cites “a large number” of New Jersey districts as having returned to full--time instruction, has 467 signatures as of Sunday.

Brick Superintendent Thomas Farrell said the district’s elementary schools will shift to four days a week in person beginning Feb. 22. Read more: Brick Schools To Expand In-Person Learning For Elementary Level

The Board of Education meets at 7 p.m. Thursday at the district's Professional Development Center on Hendrickson Boulevard — it also can be viewed on the district's YouTube channel — and more information is anticipated to be provided then.

As of Jan. 28, 86 school districts out of more than 800 have students and staff in school full time, according to a report by NJ.com. Those districts are predominantly very small schools where spacing for social distancing is easier to achieve.

In Ocean County, the Lakewood School District started the school year full-time in person in spite of the protests of staff members over concerns about the potential spread in schools.

Statewide, there have been 142 outbreaks linked to in-school transmission, with 671 cases tied to those outbreaks, according to the state Department of Health. Ocean County has had five in-school outbreaks with 142 cases tied to those outbreaks.

Ocean County remains in the orange category, meaning high risk, due to the rates of transmission of the coronavirus. As of Sunday, Ocean County had 48,393 cases, up 1,837 from the 46,556 cases on Feb. 7. Brick has 239 new cases in that time, with 6,188, up from 5,949, on Feb. 7, according to the Ocean County Health Department.

Ocean County has had 1,646 deaths from complications of COVID-19, up from 1,290 as of Jan. 1. Brick has 220, up from 190 in that time, according to the county health department.

There have been more than 665,000 people who have tested positive for the coronavirus via PCR test in New Jersey since March 2020, including 1,798 new PCR positives reported Sunday, according to the state Department of Health. As of Saturday, 2,449 people were hospitalized due to the coronavirus, with 520 in intensive care and 326 patients on ventilators, according to the state COVID-19 website. All three of those numbers have continued to decrease over the last week.

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