Cobb schools report 185 new COVID-19 cases in first week

As first week of the 2021-22 school year in the Cobb County School District comes to a close, the district is reporting 185 new cases of COVID-19.

As it did last year, the district is updating those figures every Friday at this link, which includes a cumulative figure of 235 cases since July 1.

The numbers are not broken down between students and staff.

The school-by-school numbers include a district-high of seven cases each at Sprayberry High School, Hillgrove High School and Lost Mountain Middle School.

On Wednesday, the district revised its quarantine and other COVID-19 protocols.

Among the provisions is to allow staff or students who are identified as a “close contact” and who are asymptomatic to return to school within 24 hours if they remain asymptomatic and wear a mask on campus for 10 days following exposure.

The Cobb school district’s COVID-19 figures don’t include how many people are quarantined or how many are identified as close contacts.

The district also said it would be “strongly encouraging” but not mandating indoor mask use for everyone, as it did last year.

Cobb, Marietta, Cherokee, Paulding and Forsyth are the only school districts in metro Atlanta that do not have overall mask requirements.

That policy runs counter to recent Centers for Disease Control guidance recommending “universal indoor masking for all teachers, staff, students, and visitors to schools, regardless of vaccination status.”

On Thursday, Cobb and Douglas Public Health released a message saying while it is “committed to being a trusted resource for planning, mitigation, case identification, and contact tracing” that according to a state public health order issued Monday “all schools have local, final authority over their COVID-19 policies and quarantine protocols within certain parameters.”

The CDPH message also linked to the CDC guidance and stated that “each school system has their own unique challenges to meet the needs of students and faculty and we respect their authority to make the final decisions.”

Here’s the case breakdown for schools in East Cobb:

Elementary: Addison 2; Bells Ferry 0; Blackwell 2; Davis 0; East Side 3; Eastvalley 4; Garrison Mill 2; Keheley 1; Kincaid 2; Mt. Bethel 1; Mountain View 2; Murdock 5; Nicholson 0; Powers Ferry 0; Rocky Mount 1; Sedalia Park 0; Sope Creek 0; Timber Ridge 1; Tritt 0.
Middle: Daniell 1; Dickerson 1; Dodgen 4; East Cobb 1; Hightower Trail 3; Mabry 0; McClekskey 0; Simpson 0.
High: Kell 3; Lassiter 5; Pope 3; Sprayberry 7; Walton 4; Wheeler 3.