Millburn Will Test School Community For Coronavirus Next Week

MILLBURN, NJ — The Millburn school district will open a COVID-19 testing program to all of the staff, students, and their families this coming Tuesday at Millburn High School from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m.

"We will be creating a regular weekly schedule, with more dates and times if interest warrants, after the vacation week," said Superintendent Christine Burton in an email Thursday. "This fully-funded (no out-of-pocket costs), optional, asymptomatic COVID-19- nasal-swab PCR test provides an additional layer of protection against the virus for our school community. Please note anyone who is currently symptomatic or under isolation for testing positive cannot be tested."

One CDC report said that 16 to 50 percent of children may appear asymptomatic when they have the virus, but can still spread it, particularly if they don't know they have it.

"While children infected with SARS-CoV-2 are less likely to develop severe illness compared with adults," the post noted, "children are still at risk of developing severe illness and complications from COVID-19."

Interested members of the Millburn school community can register through the secure online portal, and receive an email to schedule a telemedicine appointment. After a 3-5 minute appointment, they get instructions for the test.

New fatality last month in Millburn

As of Thursday, 631 residents of Millburn have tested positive for the virus since the start of the pandemic.

There have been eight fatalities among residents, including one last month.

A week ago Thursday, the case number was 606, meaning 25 new cases were confirmed in the past week. Since Jan. 11 (one month ago), there have been 155 new cases.

National statistics and vaccination information

As of Friday, more than 475,000 Americans had died of the virus. (You can see which states had the highest death toll in the past week on this CDC map.)

The total death toll from the virus in New Jersey is more than 19,455. Last week, Gov. Phil Murphy said that hospitals in the state were treating 2,892 covid patients, with 516 in ICU and 366 on ventilators.

Gov. Phil Murphy reportedly said last week that he'd like to start vaccinating the general public by Memorial Day.

Here is a link to some of the vaccination sites in Essex County.

Here is a link to see the updated list of people eligible in New Jersey.

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Here are statewide coronavirus resources:

• NJ COVID-19 Information Hub: https://covid19.nj.gov/
• General COVID-19 questions: 2-1-1
• NJ COVID-19 hotline: (800) 222-1222

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