New Jersey will now require all schools in the state to report all COVID-19 testing and vaccination data among students and staff members to the state health department on a weekly basis regardless of where infections occurred, Gov. Phil Murphy announced Wednesday.
“This reporting will give us a more complete picture of the cases and vaccination rates among students and staff, which we can then report to you,” Murphy said at his latest coronavirus briefing in Trenton.
The requirement begins Oct. 26.
The reports will include data from testing conducted by the schools and their testing vendors, as well as cases reported by parents, teachers, and staff, state Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said.
Schools must also report vaccination data on staff and students, she said.
The health department plans to analyze the data for trends and share information on the state dashboard, Persichilli said.
Since school returned with all in-person classes, New Jersey school districts have reported at least 69 outbreaks across 62 districts, according to state data. The positive tests include 60 for educators and other school staff and 319 for students.
Those numbers, however, reflect only outbreaks that meet the state’s definition of in-school transmission, which is narrowly defined to include only instances of three or more coronavirus infections that can be linked to in-school transmission through contact tracing. The state also increased the number of connected cases from three to two this year.
For example, Ocean County is currently listed on the state’s dashboard with one in-school outbreak linked to five cases. That district is not identified. Toms River’s district, which publicly reports its cases, has had 292 students and 35 staff members test positive since the start of the school year.
Though in-school outbreaks have increased, officials said COVID-19 numbers in schools have not been overwhelming so far.
“More than zero is too much, but it’s a reasonable place at this point,” Murphy said.
The state required schools return to all in-person classes this fall, with students and staff members in pre-school through 12th grade required to wear masks indoors.
New Jersey is also requiring all public and private school employees to be fully vaccinated against the virus or undergo regular testing by Oct. 18.