Hi, 

We don't think this is an infection yet, but you can monitor for further symptoms. It looks like it could be needle damage from either drought, winter temperature fluctuations, spring rain and humidity conditions, being newly planted in the fall and not getting established yet etc.

You can review our page on Blue Spruce  to read about symptoms. Blue spruce tend to become stressed in our Mid-Atlantic climate with the heat, humidity and the clay soil throughout most of the state. The link has some alternative evergreens with similar blue needles that you can pursue. 

Just make sure it is in a sunny location and the planting space is well draining in the meantime. It could shed the brown needles and recover still. 

Emily

Thank you, Emily.

I’m curious what symptoms should I be looking for rhizosphera needlecast so I can get it treated if it gets infected.

the reason I asked is because I thought this is infected based on the info from online source (inner needles are brown)

Tiny spore-bearing structures, almost like miniscule black pimples or grains of sand (although much smaller than sand), will form on infected needles when the fungus is ready to reproduce, if one of the needle cast diseases is present. This might be more evident after a period of wet weather. Examples for comparison can be viewed on Iowa State Extension's Rhizosphaera Needle Cast web page, the Univ. of Maine's Rhizosphaera Needlecast page, and the Univ. of Illinois's Rhizosphaera and Swiss Needle Casts page. (The similarly-small white flecks on the needle undersides in those photos are normal leaf structures.)

Miri