The Cobb County School District on Friday said there are 576 active cases of COVID-19 among staff and students, and that the figure reflects a steep decline since a late August peak.
However, a new outbreak has been reported at another school in East Cobb.
In its weekly case notification report, the district said Friday that there have been 4,978 cases since July 1.
This week, the school with the highest number of active cases is at Dickerson Middle School, which has 38.
It’s the only middle school in double figures in cases this week, and Dickerson has reported 62 of its 75 total cases since July 1 over the last three weeks.
At Addison Elementary School in Northeast Cobb, there are 13 active cases this week, down from 32 a week ago and 11 at Rocky Mount ES, which reported 24 a week ago.
Timber Ridge ES in East Cobb reported 10 cases this week, but there was only one other elementary school in the district in double figures.
For 10 days last month the entire 5th grade at East Side Elementary School went to remote learning due to an outbreak in which there were 46 active cases at one point.
The district released a school-by-school weekly report on Friday showing how those numbers have been falling in most places (you can read through it by clicking here).
The district said case rates have dropped 44 percent since Aug. 27 and are down 90 percent at 103 of the 114 schools.
“For those schools which have not yet seen drops, we expect similar declines as COVID-19 spread also declines in those areas of the Cobb community,” said Superintendent Chris Ragsdale in the release.
Last week he was the only member of the Cobb Board of Health who did not vote for a statement urging universal masking in schools, per the latest CDC guidance.
Instead, Ragsdale abstained, saying the statement was not sent to him before a virtual meeting. He also said the Cobb school district was following all other CDC-recommended protocols.
Cobb has a masks-optional policy and is one of the few school districts in metro Atlanta not to require face coverings.
In Friday’s release, Ragsdale didn’t mention masks, but said the following:
“Our commitment to our staff, students, and parents will continue focusing on data-based approaches, balancing our commitments to continuing to provide Cobb County’s students with an internationally competitive education, ensuring a safe instructional environment for our staff and students, and preserving the overwhelming preference of our community for a choice of in-person learning.”
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More than 1,000 Georgians have died of COVID-19 in the past two weeks, according to data released Thursday by the Georgia Department of Health.
Georgia reached the grim milestone of 20,000 deaths from the virus on Sept. 3. Just 13 days later, that total has jumped to 21,143.
Thursday was one of the deadliest days of the pandemic, with 174 people reported to have died of the virus. Only three more days were deadlier, with totals of 175 on Feb. 6, 176 on Feb. 16 and 186 on Feb. 12.
Where do those numbers come from? Schools weren’t in session in June and July, so how can they have a cumulative of almost 5k? Do they make parents tell schools when their kids are diagnosed with covid while they’re not in school?
Flu cases are not reported like this, head lice cases are not reported like this, bullying problems are not reported like this … why the tunnel vision on covid? Putting a microscope on anything is going to make it seem worse than it really is, especially when there’s no notation on the report about how many people are included in the count; 35 out of 1,000 is not the same as 35 out of 2,500 – but it looks the same on paper.
COVID can be fatal. That’s why they’re reporting like this.
Because we are in a pandemic and people are dying. Head lice doesn’t kill anyone and flu only results in a fraction of the deaths that covid causes. Why wouldn’t you want to put covid under a microscope? 35 of 1000 & 35 of 2500 looks different on paper and in real life. 3.5% and 1.4% infections.