Track Mercer County School COVID Data Through NJ Dashboard

MERCER COUNTY, NJ — It has now gotten easier for parents and students to get a snapshot of current COVID-19 activity in their schools.

The New Jersey Department of Health recently released the new NJ COVID-19 School-Related Outbreaks Dashboard 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.

"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."

New Jersey hit a seven-week high in COVID-19 related hospitalizations and the state is also bracing for the arrival of the new Omicron variant.

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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.

In Mercer County, 81 students and 16 staff members tested positive for COVID-19, according to the latest data.

However, Mercer County's case rate — the number of cases per 1,000 people — isn't near the top, coming in at 1.89. Only three students per 1,000 people are learning remotely due to COVID-19 quarantine, according to the dashboard.

The new dashboard also shows staff vaccination rates in schools, with nearly 88 percent of staff vaccinated. Meanwhile, over 84 percent of college students and 94 percent of college staff in the County are vaccinated.

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.

To view the dashboard for yourself, click here.

With reporting from Alexis Tarrazi.