Gov. Phil Murphy pledged more robust data on COVID and New Jersey schools to come soon with his new K-12 testing and screening program underway, even as one district scrambles to contain a major virus outbreak that has sickened three dozen just two weeks into the new year.
A total of 82 student and 20 staff cases have been reported in New Jersey schools since the start of the 2021-22 academic year, Murphy said Wednesday -- but that total doesn't appear to include the 36 reported by the West Milford Township School District this week. The state's dashboard as of Wednesday shows zero confirmed school-linked outbreaks and cases in Passaic County, home to West Milford schools, which told News 4 it was struggling with dozens of infections.
Nearly two dozen (23) separate outbreaks have been reported and 22 school districts have reported cases of in-school transmission, according to Murphy. In West Milford's case, officials say most of the 36 reported cases involve high school students and contact tracing shows they may be linked to a football game, which may be why its numbers are not reflected on the state's school tracker page.
According to the state tracker, no county has as many confirmed outbreaks and school-linked cases as Mercer (6 outbreaks, 30 cases). That case number is double the next highest case number reported in any of the state's other 20 counties.
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"As the new academic year unfolds, we're continuing to work with our educational communities and local health partners to ensure that our schools remain safe places for learning," Murphy, a Democrat, said Wednesday. "This is not going to be a straight line -- we never promised that it would be, but considering the broader picture up and down the state, [we're] off to a strong start."
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Face coverings are required in all schools across New Jersey, regardless of vaccination status. Murphy also was among a small number of Democratic governors who mandated vaccination for teachers ahead of the school year start.
Still, vaccination rates lag among eligible students. Department of Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli said Wednesday that just 55% of New Jersey kids aged 12 to 15 had received at least one dose. The partial vaccination rate is significantly higher for those ages 16 and 17, 68% of whom have at least one shot.
Persichilli urged parents to help get that rate higher for kids ages 12 to 15, given the heightened likelihood they might come into contact with children who aren't yet eligible for vaccination and are therefore at higher risk of contracting COVID.
"High vaccination rates along with testing and a layered prevention approach that includes masking, frequent hand washing, physical distancing and staying home when you're sick, is important to protecting students and staff from COVID-19," she said, adding, "school districts are encouraged" to report case numbers weekly.
In New York state, that weekly reporting is required by executive order, though the website documenting those numbers is right now empty. It says it is "currently being updated," though it's not clear when statewide data may be available.
Ultimately, schools in the tri-state area have fared well over the course of the pandemic in terms of in-school transmission. Classrooms have often been hailed as safer places for children than their neighborhood streets, given in-school transmission rates compared with transmission rates for their neighborhoods.
That's a plus that officials at all levels of government attribute to prevention efforts.
"Building a strong foundation for infection prevention at every level remains a strong priority for New Jersey," Persichilli said as she announced a new grant program to assist in those efforts.
Murphy later sought to assuage any anxiety, saying that the numbers over the last two weeks overall don't appear to be going up (they had been soaring as the delta variant gained prevalence -- it now accounts for more than 99% of positive COVID samples tested in the state over the last four weeks). They're not going down yet, but the plateauing, as New Jerseyeans have learned, is an initial promising sign.
As far as the ongoing West Milford school situation, classrooms remain open for now -- except for those who have been confirmed sick with COVID. The district says "this matter is overwhelmingly concentrated in individuals not fully vaccinated."
Extra-curricular activities are also still open. The West Milford schools superintendent did not respond to a News 4 email Tuesday requesting an updated count of COVID cases and declined to do an interview.
That cluster came to light just days after New York City decided to temporarily move an East Harlem school all-remote after more than a dozen staff members tested positive. The largest teacher's union blasted the mayor, calling testing protocol insufficient to protect students and staff from the ongoing COVID-19 threat.
Amid that pressure, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced two major school policy changes around COVID testing and quarantine for the nation's largest public school system earlier this week. Those changes take effect on Monday. Learn more here.
