As the COVID-19 case rates have declined dramatically in Cobb County, they also have gone down significantly in the Cobb County School District. 
The district’s weekly COVID update on Friday reported 232 newly confirmed cases of the virus among students and staff. That’s the lowest single-week tally since there were 106 new cases the week of Nov. 20, right before the Thanksgiving holiday.
For the first time in many weeks, any schools that reporting cases have 10 or fewer, even in high schools, which have had occasional double-digit numbers over the last few months.
The schools in East Cobb with the highest number of cases this week are Addison Elementary School and Walton High School, with 7 each.
Since July 1, there have been 3,731 cumulative COVID cases reported in the Cobb school district, which doesn’t break down numbers among staff and students.
High schools have the most total cases, led by 98 at Walton and North Cobb.
Since students returned for a phased reopening of in-person classes in October, weekly case rates climbed steadily, to 470 the week of Jan. 15, after the start of the spring semester.
The following week, all classes were held online, and two Cobb teachers who had been hospitalized with COVID died, including Cynthia Lindsey, a paraprofessional at Sedalia Park Elementary School.
This week’s figures were a steep drop from the 331 reported last week, which had been the lowest since mid-December.
COVID cases in Cobb have been falling since February. This week there have been 829 cases reported according to date of report, with only Thursday having more than 200 cases.
According to date of symptom figures, there have been 337 cases in Cobb, as some of those daily numbers are falling below triple digits for the first time since late October.
Earlier this week Dr. Janet Memark of Cobb and Douglas Public Health was encouraged by those figures, as well as community spread numbers that show a declining 14-day average of 371 cases per 100,000 people. That number had been above 1,000 per 100,000 last month.
Public health officials said 100 cases per 100,000 is considered “high” community spread.
They also say anything below a 5 percent test positivity rate is ideal. In Cobb that metric also has been falling, to a current 7-day moving average of around 9 percent. That number had been 17.8 percent on Jan. 1.
Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale urged students, parents and staff to take precautions during the winter break week next week to continue to reduce the spread of the virus.
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