See New Jersey School's COVID Cases, Vaccination Rates In New Dashboard

NEW JERSEY — As COVID cases continue their uptick in New Jersey schools, a weekly snapshot of current COVID activity via county has been added to a newly launched dashboard.

The New Jersey Department of Health released the new NJ COVID-19 School-Related Outbreaks Dashboard on Monday showing vaccination and COVID-19 case trends at school districts from K through 12 and colleges and universities around the state. The data is broken down by county.

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"The data on our dashboards are a representation of what is going on in terms of trends across the state," said NJ State Epidemiologist Dr. Christina Tan. "For the purpose of trends and monitoring trends, we feel this type of information is valuable for schools, for parents, for administrators to get a sense of what is happening."

The data is provided by participating school districts. Currently, 2,081 K-12 school districts, or nearly 60 percent in the state, and 45 colleges and universities, or more than 40 percent in the state, are participating.

The new data reports staff vaccination rates and the number of students learning remotely attributed to COVID-19 or quarantining.

Since the beginning of the year, a total of 18,747 student cases and 4,095 staff cases were reported in K-12 schools. In colleges and universities, a total of 1,921 student cases and 483 teacher and staff cases have been reported since the beginning of the year.

"We are seeing an increase in case rates amongst students and staff in both K-12 and higher education," said NJ Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli.

Rates are higher among staff in both K-12 schools and colleges and universities, said Persichilli.

Case rates in K-12 schools were highest in early October and steadily declined until the second week of November when they began to increase again.

As of Monday, a total of 85.2 percent of K-12 school staff are fully vaccinated. Somerset and Bergen Counties report the highest amount of staff to be fully vaccinated and Ocean County reports the lowest.

Sussex, Glouster, and Monmouth counties all reported the highest COVID-19 case rate amongst students and staff. While Essex County reported the lowest.

Statewide 3.5 percent of students have been excluded from school due to COVID-19 with Sussex County having the highest percentage of students learning remotely.

Colleges and universities followed a similar trend to K-12 schools where their cases peaked in mid-September then declined until the second week of November when they increased again.

For colleges, the highest case rates among students and staff were in Morris and Monmouth counties. Additionally, a total of 86.7 percent of staff and 82.5 percent of students are fully vaccinated in colleges and universities.

There are also 137 students in isolation and 154 quarantining in colleges and universities.

"This new information can help administrators, parents, teachers, students and staff track case rates overtime, see how their county is faring compared to surrounding areas, monitor number of students learning remotely, and track the number of college students in isolation or quarantine," said Persichilli.

To check out the new dashboard and see how your county compares visit click here.

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