4 COVID cases in East Brunswick schools send 134 into quarantine

Four students have tested positive for the novel coronavirus in the East Brunswick school district, leading to 134 students and staff being forced to quarantine, according to a message from the superintendent.

Two students tested positive — one each at the Robert Frost Elementary School and Hammarskjold Middle School over the past two days, superintendent Victor Valeski said in letters posted on the district website. Another student at Churchill Junior High School, described in the letters as presumed positive, has since tested positive, the school district told New Jersey 101.5. Another student at East Brunswick High School remains presumed positive for the virus.

Among those quarantining because of close contact with the students are 17 athletes from Churchill Junior High School and Hammarskjold Middle School. An additional 53 student athletes will quarantine for 72 hours because they were "contacts of close contacts," the superintendent wrote.

"None of the positive or presumptive COVID cases reported today are the result of person to person transmissions within our schools. We have documented that these transmissions have occurred outside of schools," Valeski weote.

Aside from the student athletes, those contacts quarantining are:

• Frost school: 6 students and 3 staff
• Hammarskjold: 2 additional staff from this past weekend’s exposure.
• Churchill school: 14 students and 16 staff
• EBHS: 11 students and 8 staff

The school system remains on a hybrid schedule, with some in-person and some remote classes.

Gov. Phil Murphy on CNBC's Squawk Box Monday again praised schools for only having 11 instances of in-school transmissions in 3,000 buildings statewide.

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com or via Twitter @DanAlexanderNJ