UPDATE: Gov. Phil Murphy announced that he planned to shut down all schools on Wednesday, March 18. Read more: NJ Schools Will Close Due To Coronavirus Outbreak: Gov. Murphy

NEW JERSEY — Hundreds of New Jersey schools and colleges have closed, prepared to shut or changed their schedules entirely now that the new coronavirus continues to spread across the state. Nearly every college in New Jersey has moved to an online schedule, at least temporarily. A number of public schools have closed because of coronavirus exposure, while others are doing so to prepare for the potential impact of contamination (see list below).

Bergen County planned to transition all 75 public school districts from on-site learning to off-site Internet-based and/or paper-based distance-learning until further notice, effective Friday, March 13 at 3 p.m.

Burlington County also planned to shut down from March 16 through April 17 in an attempt to stem the spread of new coronavirus, Burlington County Health Officer Herb Conaway announced. The closures are taking place as 98 people in New Jersey have been diagnosed with the illness, and two people have died.

As of March 12, 182 pubic school districts had closed, at least temporarily. Twelve closed to take precautionary steps, nine closed because of possible exposure to the coronavirus, three closed because of exposure to a confirmed case and one closed because of a student with a presumptive positive case. Read more:

South Brunswick officials said they are closely monitoring the situation and taking guidance from the New Jersey Department of Health and the CDC.