Well after a quiet summer, of cases and hospitalizations from COVID-19 are on the rise.

First Lady Jill Biden on Monday tested positive for the virus, but she is experiencing mild symptoms and according to a White House spokesperson, is recovering at the family home in Delaware.

Meanwhile, President Biden has tested negative and White House officials say he'll be monitored and tested regularly.

It's all a reminder that COVID infections are still among us.

New Jersey is also seeing an uptick.

Hospitalizations increased more than 50% since July, according to data from the State Department of Health.

326 people are hospitalized with the virus as of today, though, public health experts say there's no reason to panic.

Total case counts remain low both here and nationwide.

The US is not expected to have a dangerous wave of illness like we saw during the height of the pandemic, which is one reason Rutgers University is getting a lot of criticism for keeping a mandate requiring all students to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

As our health care writer Lilo Stainton found out, the vaccine rule is among the strictest in the country, but not rare.

She joins me now.

Lilo, good to see you.

Let me just start off the bat with what exactly is Rutgers University requiring?

Because I think there's still confusion about what constitutes being fully vaccinated.

Right.

Well, my understanding is that they just require a primary series for students on campus.

And there are some groups that would require a booster as well.

And those are sort of the clinical programs, people in nursing and physician programs and things like that.

But Rutgers is not alone, right.

Montclair University is requiring kids who are living on campus to be vaccinated against COVID and as I wrote about today, you know, this is one of many vaccines or several, I should say, that that kids get for colleges, at least in New Jersey.

Well, that's interesting, because obviously Rutgers being the state's flagship university, the largest Montclair, not far behind it.

Is that one of the factors that went into this decision making, just the sheer amount of the student body and people who are on those campuses?

Well, you know, it makes sense sort of from an epidemiological point of view.

I mean, Rutgers said in its policy that, you know, the goal is to, you know, it's congregate housing.

Right.

And I also talked to Dr. Stephanie Silvera at Montclair.

And, you know, she said there their requirement only applies to actually a fairly small group.

I think it's less than a third of because residential students are less than a third of their total student population on campus.

You know, that's the most at risk group right.

You really are living close together.

You're sharing, you know, water fountains or, you know, bathrooms, all kinds of things.

And we know COVID doesn't necessarily spread that way, but it's the close contact, right?

You're breathing on each other in a closer proximity.

So there's clearly some science to it regardless of the fact that, you know, obviously people who oppose mandates are frustrated because they don't see it as making any sense at this point during.

Sure.

With the pandemic largely behind us.

But I mean, you mentioned vaccine requirements are not new to the state.

What exactly does the state law say?

And how does that apply to other folks who have students that aren't yet in the college world?

Right.

Right.

So this is if you're right, if you're a child growing up in New Jersey, you're going to get a lot of shots.

You're vaccinated against nearly a dozen things at some point in your childhood.

For colleges, the state law requires three vaccines.

They actually protect against five different diseases.

But it's measles, mumps, rubella.

That's one shot.

Hepatitis B is another shot and then a shot to protect a meningococcal vaccine, which protects against a bunch of things that cause meningitis and other diseases.

So you know, three shots and it's sort of, you know, when you get them, depends on sort of how old you are and what you've had before.

But those are required.

And it turns out, you know, even even the schools, the two schools that we found that are requiring COVID shots aren't alone.

I mean, they're, you know, more than 100 nationwide that are requiring this.

Health care writer Lilo Stainton for us.

Lilo, thanks so much.

Thank you Bri.