After the first week of classes, CMS reports COVID cases in nearly 100 schools
At the end of the first week of school, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools reported 125 new COVID-19 cases among students and 50 among staff.
That’s among 143,621 CMS students attending classes in person and and 19,106 employees.
CMS had only a three-day week, with the first day of school last Wednesday.
The district reported Monday afternoon that 97 of 178 schools in the district had at least one coronavirus case over the past 14 days.
But fewer than 10 schools reported that at least 25 of their students had actively quarantined within the past two weeks. Charlotte-Mecklenburg leaders have said they hope to avoid widespread quarantines in the district by having strict rules around masks to cut down on the spread of COVID-19.
Only two schools had COVID clusters in the past 28 days, the district reported. A cluster is defined as five or more potentially linked cases within 14 days.
The first week of school coincided with a surge in coronavirus cases in Mecklenburg County, fueled by the highly contagious delta variant. The average weekly COVID-19 positivity rate is 13.7%, Mecklenburg health officials reported on Friday.
A countywide mask mandate takes effect on Tuesday. Masks are already required for all students and staff at CMS.
COVID cases by school
The number of new COVID-19 cases among students at individual schools ranged from one to almost 20. The schools with the highest number of infections included:
▪ William Amos Hough High: 18 cases
▪ Olympic High: 12 cases
▪ Phillip O. Berry Academy of Technology: 9 cases
▪ Ardrey Kell High: 7 cases
The number of new COVID-19 cases among CMS employees at individual schools were far lower, with the vast majority of schools reporting a single infection.
But Mallard Creek High reported five cases among employees. Other schools had three cases among employees, including at Myers Park High, Olympic High and Sharon Elementary.
For the full reports, visit https://www.cms.k12.nc.us/backtoschool/Pages/Metrics-Dashboard.aspx.
How schools report COVID cases
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools’ return-to-classrooms safety plan includes telling parents and guardians about any positive COVID-19 case district officials know about in their child’s school.
Aside from those notifications, separate notices will be sent to any family of a child or to a staff member who officials believe were likely exposed to the virus at school.
Contact tracing and case investigations will try to determine who might have been exposed, where the exposure happened and for how long, and then notify individuals who may need to quarantine or be tested.
For cases known to CMS, it’s a joint function of school officials and health officials to provide these notifications. There are times when a person who might have been exposed cannot be reached, or the identity of those exposed is not known.
CMS updates weekly a public dashboard that shows how many new cases were detected among students and staff, and how many people were instructed to quarantine, among other data. The county health department updates weekly its data on active local outbreaks and clusters. And the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services identifies clusters of cases in daycares and schools every Tuesday.
This story was originally published August 30, 2021 at 3:18 PM.