N.J.’s COVID activity map is all orange, again. Here’s what it means for school quarantines. – NJ.com

For the first time since last spring, New Jersey’s color-coded map tracking the spread of COVID-19 has turned all orange because there are “high” levels of the virus in all 21 of the state’s counties.

The move from yellow, indicating “moderate” virus levels, to orange over the last few weeks has triggered many school districts around the state to move to stricter rules to keep students out of the classroom if they have been exposed to the virus.

School districts should tell unvaccinated students who are “close contacts” — meaning they sat for at least 15 minutes within three feet of a classmate or teacher who tested positive — to quarantine for 14 days if they are in areas with “high” virus activity levels, according to state school health guidelines.

There is no option for students quarantining 14 days to go back to school earlier, even if the student tests negative, under the state guidelines for areas that are orange on the map.

“Close contacts” were previously told to quarantine only for seven days if they tested negative, or 10 days if they didn’t get a test, when their counties were yellow on the map, according to the state guidelines.

Though some areas on the map have been orange for weeks, this is the first time since early April that the entire state has turned orange due to high virus activity levels.

It is unclear what will happen if any counties move to red on the map, indicating “very high” virus levels. Last school year, a move to red meant schools in that county would close and move to remote learning. This year, the guidelines say only “further recommendations” will be issued for schools if areas turn red.

Gov. Phil Murphy has said there are no plans to return to remote learning for schools statewide.

“We know the price we paid with learning loss. The overwhelming hope is obviously to keep students and staff and educators safe, but to also keep them in person,” Murphy said at his press briefing Monday.

During the 14-day quarantines, which include weekends, exposed students either do their schoolwork on their own or participate in Zoom or other online classes. Some districts are also offering quarantined students online tutoring after school.

The stricter rules mean is students told to quarantine this week will likely not return to school in person until after the holiday break in January.

However, not every school district is following the state’s COVID safety guidelines. Some school boards have adopted stricter or looser quarantine rules than the guidelines issued by the state Department of Education. That has caused confusion among some parents who say the rules seem to vary from town to town.

The recommended changes in school quarantine rules comes as positive COVID cases in New Jersey schools have surged over the last month.

In data released Monday, 4,998 students (up from 3,024 in the previous week) and 1,168 staff members (up from 858) reported testing positive in the week ending Dec. 5.

However, the numbers are incomplete because only 65% of the state’s 3,500 schools reported data to the state.

There were also 31 new in-school outbreaks for the week ending Dec. 5, bringing the total to 248 for the new school year, according to the data. Outbreaks are defined as cases where three or more unrelated students or school staff members are believed to have caught COVID in the classroom or at school.

It is unclear exactly how many students are currently home quarantining due to positive tests or exposure to classmates who have the virus.

Murphy said though outbreaks have been increasing in schools, the numbers are not unexpected.

“Those numbers have been increasing over the past several weeks. This is in line with the increase we’ve been seeing generally, yet these numbers are still in the range of where we believe the layered approach to protection we’ve taken in our schools has kept in school transmission in check,” Murphy said Monday.

The increasing school numbers also come as more students are getting vaccinated. Children ages 5 through 11 became eligible to receive the Pfizer vaccine in early November.

New Jersey school officials have been keeping a close eye on the state Department of Health’s COVID-19 Activity Level Report map released every week.

The map uses data about each region’s weekly coronavirus case rate, percent of people who tested positive and the number of people reported with fever, cough and other symptoms that may be COVID-19.

The map breaks New Jersey into six regions and assigns them each a color: green (low), yellow (moderate), orange (high) or red (very high). The color is based on the on the COVID-19 Activity Level Index, or CALI, a score health officials give each region weekly using a formula that includes the virus data from each county.

At the beginning of August, the map was entirely yellow, indicating “moderate” levels of COVID-19 spread statewide and less strict quarantining guidelines for schools. But, then counties gradually began to turn orange again until every region had “high” levels of virus activity on the latest map, which used data for the week ending Dec. 4.

The last time the entire state was entirely orange on the map was the week ending April 3, just after vaccines became widely available for adults. The last time the majority of the state was red on the map, indicating “very high” virus activity, was in April 2020 at the start of the pandemic and statewide shutdowns.

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Kelly Heyboer may be reached at kheyboer@njadvancemedia.com.