Coronavirus Case Update As Manchester Schools Plan 4-Day Classes

MANCHESTER, NJ — As the rate of coronavirus cases continues to slow, the Manchester 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, Manchester's number of new coronavirus cases was up just over 4 percent from Feb. 7, according to data from the Ocean County Health Department.

That announcement last week comes as parents all over have been clamoring for a return to full-day, five days a week in school in the district.

Manchester Superintendent David Trethaway said the district’s elementary schools will shift to four days a week in person beginning March 1. In a notice on the district's website, he said more information will be provided at Wednesday's Board of Education meeting. The public portion of the meeting is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m.

Parents will need to notify the district of whether they want their children to attend four days or stay fully remote through a survey on the Parent Portal, Trethaway said.

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. Manchester has 123 new cases in that time, with 3,129, up from 3,006 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. Manchester has 273, up from 217 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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