Cranford Reports Two More Coronavirus Cases In Schools

CRANFORD, NJ — Cranford Superintendent of Schools Scott Rubin reported on Thursday two more coronavirus cases in the public schools, but since both schools have been remote, there were no close contacts within the schools.

In one letter Thursday, he wrote, "The purpose of this letter is to inform you that the District was notified that another individual at Orange Avenue School tested positive for COVID-19. OAS has been fully remote since Thursday, Nov. 12 (7 days ago). The Township Health Department has confirmed that there are no close contacts in the school."

He noted that Orange Avenue School is still scheduled to open Nov. 30, after Thanksgiving break.

In another letter, he wrote, "The purpose of this letter is to inform you that the District was notified that an individual at Hillside Avenue School tested positive for COVID-19. HAS has been fully remote since Thursday, Nov. 5, until today (14 days) and the individual who tested positive was not in school today. The Township Health Department has confirmed that there are no close contacts in the school."

HAS reopened on-site on Thursday.

Cranford High School also reopened Thursday after closing for a day for sanitizing and contact tracing, following a confirmation of a positive case.

The town of Cranford reported Wednesday that another resident has died "in the community," meaning not in a long-term care facility. That brings coronavirus-related fatalities in town to 99.

The number of active cases in town is now 50 and the cumulative count of cases since March is 648.

You can read stories about past coronavirus cases in the Cranford schools here.

Over the weekend, the state of New Jersey said it had confirmed the highest number of new cases since in April. On Sunday, the State of New Jersey reported 18 new fatalities since the day before, and a record high of 4,540 new cases, following 4,395 positive cases on Saturday. Before that, the highest one-day total was 4,391 on April 17.

Doctors have said that a number of factors are contributing to the drop in the death rate since spring, including people getting test results (and thus treatment) sooner, more protective equipment available in hospitals, and doctors becoming better able to treat the virus. However, the virus still can have long-term effects.

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