Earlier this month, the New Jersey Department of Health reported that community transmission of COVID-19 for Essex County – as it has for all counties in the state – went from moderate activity (yellow) to high activity (orange).As a result, the district must follow new quarantine requirements, said superintendent of schools Matthew Block in a letter posted on the district website.Any unvaccinated student or staff member who is exposed to COVID-19 must now quarantine for the full 14 days. “While in the high activity level, providing a negative COVID test result during quarantine will not allow the unvaccinated individual to return to school,” he said. No new information from the district was availble as of press time.The district is continuing its weekly reports on the number of individuals who test positive for the disease, and the number who are required to quarantine.For the week of December 13 through December 17, the LPS COVID-19 dashboard indicates that 36 individuals tested positive for the disease, and that 148 were required to quarantine.Among the elementary schools, one individual tested positive at Burnet Hill School; two at Collins School; one at Harrison School; one at Hillside School; two at Mt. Pleasant Elementary School; and four at Riker Hill School.Also testing positive were five individuals at Mt. Pleasant Middle School, seven at Heritage Middle School, and 13 at Livingston High School.The previous week, the district had reported 14 positive results and 60 individuals requiring quarantine. Thus far this year, the district has reported a total of 157 positive cases and 1,255 individuals in quarantine.The dashboard does not indicate whether the numbers refer to students or staff. The data can be viewed on the district website, www.livingston.org.
