Track Bergen County School COVID Data Through New NJ Dashboard

BERGEN COUNTY, NJ — Many school COVID-19 protocols are made using COVID activity levels from the surrounding area. Now, it's easier for parents and students to get a snapshot of that activity for themselves.

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. Read more: Track NJ School's COVID Cases, Vaccination Rates In New Dashboard

"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."

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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 Bergen County, that includes 275 K-12 schools and five colleges and universities.

The county's 222 newly reported cases of COVID-19 mark the second highest in K-12. Only Monmouth County is reporting more cases, 278. Schools in Bergen also report 61 new cases among staff, again, only Monmouth is reporting a higher number.

However, Bergen's case rate — the number of cases per 1,000 people — isn't near the top, coming in at 2.04. Only one student per 1,000 people is learning remotely due to COVID-19 quarantine, according to the dashboard.

The new dashboard also shows staff vaccination rates, placing Bergen as the second-highest county in terms of that metric at nearly 91 percent.

That metric is much higher than at Bergen County colleges, where less than 60 percent of the student body is vaccinated, while staff members at those institutions are vaccinated at an 80 percent clip.

COVID-19 case numbers are low at those schools, however, with only 0.37 cases per 1,000 people. But New Jersey Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli did say cases are trending up, especially among staff.

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.