Cobb schools report nearly 1K COVID-19 weekly cases

East Side ES 5th grade remote learning — *East Side ES has reported 84 cases of COVID-19 since the school year began, the most in the Cobb County School District.*

The day after the Cobb County School District announced quarantine policy changes and said it would maintain its masks-optional policy, nearly 1,000 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in the schools.

The district’s weekly Friday update showed 942 new cases, a big jump from 569 cases a week ago. There were 185 cases during the first week of school at the start of August, during which the district “strongly encouraged” mask use and changed some other prootocls.

Since July 1, there have been 1,764 cases among students and staff in the Cobb school district, which has 109,000 students and around 13,000 staff.

The numbers at East Side Elementary School continue to mount, with 35 new cases and 84 in the three weeks since the school year began.

That’s by far the highest total in the 112-school system. East Side fifth-graders have been learning remotely since the middle of last week and were to be allowed to return to campus on Monday.

Walton High School had 33 cases this week, and there were 32 at Sprayberry High School.

Also in East Cobb, there were 15 new cases at Sedalia Park ES, Garrison Mill ES reported 14 new cases, there were 11 at East Cobb MS and Dodgen MS and 10 at Daniell MS.

On Thursday Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale announced new quarantine provisions for students who are identified as close contacts and whose exposure took place in school.

Those students will have to be quarantined for three days, following a new order from the Georgia Department of Public Health. They can return after those three days, as long as they are asymptomatic, and they must wear a mask on their campus for seven more days after exposure.

The policy also states the following:

“Students who are identified as a close contact where the point of exposure occurred in the school setting and are symptomatic must follow the isolation guidance contained in the close contact letter.”

More health protocols can be found here; Ragsdale also said Thursday that the district’s online learning options will be expanded for the second semester via lottery process.

He said the window for that process will open in October, and those students chosen through the lottery will be notified in November.

That doesn’t address the immediate concerns of parents who cannot switch their children from face-to-face to remote learning. That option was available last year but parents had to make their choice for the current school year in May, when COVID-19 spread was low.

Only 2,000 of the district’s students were enrolled in the Elementary Virtual Program and Cobb Online Academy for the fall semester.