COVID In Morris County Schools: What New NJ Data Reveals

MORRIS COUNTY, NJ — New Jersey’s Department of Health launched new COVID-19 dashboards this past Monday for the state's schools, with breakdowns by county, including K-12 districts and colleges and universities.

The dashboard additionally shows new COVID outbreaks within the K-12 school settings.

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In the COVID-19 dashboard for schools, Morris County residents can see how the county compares week by week with its COVID statistics, versus other counties throughout the Garden State.

The data per county is based on the number of schools - both public and private - that voluntarily report to New Jersey's Department of Health each week, those districts providing their new student and staff cases among information, the dashboard tallying cumulative totals reported since the start of the school term.

The dashboard, however, doesn’t break the numbers down per school or municipality.

These numbers are updated weekly, with the most recent report from week ending Nov. 14.

The state clarifies in its footnotes on the K-12 section of the school dashboard, that “cumulative case counts may be underestimated and are carried from previous weeks if a school does not report.”

Some students may be excluded from the weekly totals as well, if they’re learning remotely because they’ve tested positive for COVID or were identified as a close contact of someone who had.

The “weekly incidence rates of COVID-19 per 1,000 individuals," is the total number of cases "reported/total school census multiplied by 1,000.”

Statewide, the numbers reflect the following for 2,081 K-12 schools that reported their COVID information for week ending Nov. 14:

Students - 2.06 - Cases/1,000
Staff - 2.65 - Cases/1,000
Overall - 2.06 - Cases/1,000
New Student Cases - 2,128
Cumulative Student Cases - 18,747
New Staff Cases - 479
Cumulative Staff Cases - 4,095
Percent of Students Excluded - 1.4 Percent
Percent of Staff Vaccinated - 84.9 Percent

Statewide, this is how it looked as of Nov. 23, for outbreaks in the K-12 schools:

New Outbreaks Reported - 19
Cumulative School Outbreaks Since Sept. 7 - 179
Cumulative Cases Linked To School Outbreaks - 1,026

In Morris County during the week ending Nov. 14, the numbers were:
Number of Schools Reporting - 108
New Student Cases - 87
New Staff Cases - 28
New Cases Per 1,000 in schools - 2.08
Cumulative Student Cases - 718
Cumulative Staff Cases - 201
Percent of Students Excluded - 1.1 Percent
Percent of Staff Vaccinated - 86.1 Percent

Morris County’s School Outbreaks as of Nov. 23, with it ranked 8th highest of all 21 New Jersey Counties:
Confirmed - 9
Linked Cases - 58

On the dashboard, the numbers can be sorted in ascending or descending order per category.

Of the 21 counties, how does Morris County rank in its COVID statistics for the week ending Nov. 14, for its K-12 schools? Here are some quick facts below:

Number of Schools Reporting - Morris County ranked 10th highest on the list statewide
New Student Cases - Morris County ranked 9th highest on the list statewide
New Staff Cases - Morris County was 14th statewide of 21 counties
New Cases Per 1,000 in Schools - Morris County ranked 9th highest on the list statewide
Cumulative Student Cases - Morris County was 10th highest statewide
Cumulative Staff Cases - Morris County was 9th highest on the list statewide
Percent of Students Excluded - Morris County was 7th lowest on the list statewide
Percentage of Staff Fully Vaccinated - Morris County was 7th highest on the list statewide

Among colleges, Morris County ranked the highest for new cases at 1.87 per 1,000 for the week ending Nov. 14. However, Essex County outpaced Morris for the top spot in terms of cumulative cases in college settings, with 341 in Essex in the top spot versus 125 in Morris as the sixth highest.

Here are some other quick stats from other counties around the state during the week ending Nov. 14:

Monmouth County had the highest number of new student cases in its K-12 schools at 278, plus the greatest number of new staff cases statewide at 67.

Monmouth County also had the highest cumulative number of student cases at 2,158 and staff at 406, though the county ranked 8th in number of students excluded.

Sussex County showed the highest number of new cases per 1,000 at 4.04, among 44 K-12 schools. However, their new student cases were only at 72, the 7th lowest statewide for the week ending Nov. 14, with staff the same ranking with 13 new staff cases. There were 3.5 percent of the students countywide excluded from the count, the highest as well statewide.

Somerset County has the highest number of staff members vaccinated, at 91.1 percent in its 60 K-12 schools reporting.

Cape May County had the lowest number of new student cases reported for the week, with 17 cases in students and 3 in staff among 21 K-12 schools reporting.

Essex County had the lowest number of new cases per 1,000 during the week, at 1.00.

Camden County had the greatest number of confirmed outbreaks in K-12 schools at 23, with 187 linked cases.

Warren and Burlington Counties had the lowest number of confirmed outbreaks within K-12 schools, with 0 confirmed outbreaks and linked cases each.

Warren County ranked lowest statewide in cumulative staff cases.

Ocean County had the lowest number of staff members vaccinated at 78.7 percent, with Hudson County the second lowest at 78.8 percent.

Follow the state’s dashboard for week-by-week comparisons here at https://www.nj.gov/health/cd/topics/covid2019_dashboard.shtml, then click the menu button at the dashboard’s far right and “schools” category for breakdowns.

Questions or comments about this story? Have a news tip? Contact me at: jennifer.miller@patch.com.