NJ School COVID Outbreaks Up As Many Districts Have Gone Remote

NEW JERSEY — An additional 24 percent of New Jersey's school districts switched to all-remote just before the holidays as new student and teacher cases and outbreaks nearly doubled over the past month, the Murphy administration reported this week (see list of schools districts and their status below).

The increases came as the state Department of Health on Thursday updated its "COVID-19 Activity Level Report," a guide that is supposed to help inform school districts' decisions in determining whether to switch to all-remote learning.

The report said the state's overall coronavirus activity level remains "high" while the case numbers have now reached a "very high" level that's marked as "red."

Facing this reality, many districts switched to all-remote before Thanksgiving because they expected family gatherings to increase and the cold weather is forcing people inside, where COVID transmission is much more likely.

Others made the decision later, switching to all-remove before the December holiday breaks.

"Closing the buildings for an extended period may allow some districts to allow a full cleaning regime," Gov. Phil Murphy said.

Here are the latest numbers:

• 82 districts are fully open for in-person instruction, down five since Dec. 9th.
• 362 are offering a hybrid of in-person and remote learning, down 71 from Dec. 9th.
• 320 are offering all-remote learning, up 62 from Dec. 9th.

By contrast, during the previous week, only 12 schools switched to remote learning.

Indeed, a number of school districts have shifted to remote instruction or, in the case of Ocean City, made modifications such as eliminating lunch periods. Read more: Ocean City High School Removes Lunch Period From Hybrid Schedule

Here are districts and schools that have switched to remote recently:

• Berkeley
• Black Horse Pike
• Bridgewater-Raritan
• Chatham
• Cherry Hill
• Edison
• Hazlet
• Gloucester Township
• Hoboken
• Howell
• Mahwah
• Manasquan
• Middletown
• Millburn
• Manchester
• Montgomery Township
• Morristown
• Newark
• Parsippany
• Point Pleasant Boro
• Princeton
• Red Bank
• Scotch Plains
• Stafford Township
• Southern Regional
• Summit
• Wayne
• Wyckoff

Here was the list of each school district in New Jersey and whether they planned to go remote, establish a hybrid plan of both in-person or remote instruction or go completely in-person (republished with permission courtesy of NJ Spotlight):

The decisions were made as New Jersey reported 35 new in-school outbreaks and 174 new cases during the three weeks since Dec. 2nd – continuing a sharp rise that began after Thanksgiving break.

By contrast, during the three weeks from Nov. 12 to Dec. 2, New Jersey had 19 new in-school cases and 93 more outbreaks. The numbers track cases that are transmitted inside the schools.

Since Nov. 12, New Jersey's number of in-school cases has risen from 60 to 105 and in-school outbreaks have gone from 285 to 459.

Murphy has continued to insist that schools will remain open as long as the vast majority of school districts are able to contain the spread.

Murphy and other state officials have repeatedly cited studies that say schools have been safe and that there is no evidence that they can cause any widespread transmission. The various precautions — such as mask-wearing and social distancing, as well as remote options — have helped keep them safe, they say.

He noted that the overall numbers – "a fraction of 1 percent of the total cases" – are still low considering there are thousands of school buildings.

Murphy said the risk is coming from outside of the school buildings, and districts are doing everything they can to reduce the possibility of spread happening inside the buildings.

"It's not as though you can walk in there having been exposed and not expect something to happen inside the walls," he said.

Here are the county-by-county numbers in-school case and outbreak numbers:

The "COVID Activity Level Report," meanwhile, shows that case totals remain in a very high "red zone" in each area of the state as key metrics continue to rise (first column):

The report is intended to guide school districts that may have to take more serious steps — such as quarantining or even shutting down schools — if a child shows the symptoms of COVID-19.

The coronavirus risk rose to "high" this month in each of the counties because:

• The new daily case rate in each of the counties rose to 10 or more per 100,000 people.
• The percent of COVID-19-like illnesses rose above 5.52 in each of the counties.
• The percent of positive cases rose above 10.01.

The daily new COVID-19 virus case rate, per 100,000 people, rose to "very high" in all 21 counties, which means they exceed 25 cases per 1,000 people.

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