This week’s COVID-19 update in the Cobb County School District is the lowest single-week total for new reported cases since the pandemic was on the rise in November.
The district is reporting 106 new cases among teachers and staff, the same number as the week of Nov. 20, when case totals in Cobb and Georgia began their late fall and early winter surge.
That was a month after Cobb students who chose in-person learning returned to their classrooms.
The 106 new cases bring to 4,066 the cumulative number of COVID-19 cases in the district since it began reporting them last July 1.
There were 7 new cases this week at Kell High School, the most of any school in the 112-school district, and Walton High School’s 3 new cases bring its overall total to 105, the most in the district.
There also are 50 schools this week that did not report any new cases. The figures do not break down between students and staff.
After an online-only end to the fall semester, the spring semester started in frazzled fashion in January, and during that period 3 Cobb schools teachers died from COVID-19, setting off emotional protests and calls for a return to virtual learning.
After 470 new cases were reported the week of Jan. 15—the highest for any week this school year—those numbers steadily began to drop. By Feb. 15, the new case total had fallen to 232, and was 229 last week.
The district announced last week it was making plans to distribute vaccines to teachers and staff.
In Cobb County, the rate of new COVID-cases has been declining sharply. According to Thursday’s Georgia Department of Public Health daily status report, the 7-day moving average of cases according to date of onset in the county is 160, the lowest since early November.
That’s for both PCR and antigen tests, and that combined 7-day moving average stood at 801 in early January.
The rate of community spread of the virus in Cobb also has dropped sharply, with a 14-day average of 234 PCR cases per 100,000. That number had been higher than 1,000 in January.
A two-week average of 100 cases per 100,000 is considered high community spread.
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So now we’re calling a PCR positive test a “case”? What happens if it’s a false positive … is it taken out of the count?? If we’re supposed to be “following the science”, then they need to give us science to follow, not the ever-changing basket of games they’re playing with our lives.
Will Ragsdale be reconsidering the virtual learning option for next year or going through with it regardless of the numbers?