Here’s how Muscogee school district could decide to stop in-person classes amid COVID
While the coronavirus delta variant surges in the Columbus area, the number of reported COVID-19 cases among students and employees in the Muscogee County School District’s has increased as well during the first three weeks of the school year.
MCSD’s cases more than doubled from the first week to the second. The total increased again last week.
Last week, Northside High School’s football game against LaGrange was canceled due to what officials called “COVID protocols,” and four schools in Lee County have conducted classes only online this month because of rising coronavirus cases.
If cases keep rising locally, how will MCSD decide whether a school needs to stop in-person classes?
In an email to the Ledger-Enquirer, MCSD communications director Alicia Lawrence said the district has multiple resources to consult for a decision.
The school district’s medical panel, comprising pediatricians, virologists and others, may recommend virtual instruction. Superintendent David Lewis has said he consults with the panel for advice on masking, social distancing and more.
If the district is “unable to maintain continuity of operations,” schools could move to remote learning, Lawrence said.
“Reputable medical entities such as the Center for Disease Control, the American Academy of Pediatrics and, more importantly, our own medical panel members, advocate for in-person learning with multiple layered mitigation strategies in place, such as universal indoor masking, contact tracing, illness and sanitation protocols,” she said in the email.
Lawrence added, “As our medical panel has pointed out, schools have not been a significant contributor to the spread of the virus.”
The district’s weekly COVID cases amount to less than 1% of its 30,526 students and 4,193 school-based employees (5,175 overall).
“Given that the spread within the community is higher than that within schools validates this point,” Lawrence said.
Asked to what measurement of community spread she is referring, Lawrence said in a voicemail, “The spread within the community, as far as where cases are being linked to, are higher everywhere else than in the school district, inside the schools themselves. . . . As far as contact tracing, where students are getting the cases is not in the school buildings.”
Georgia Department of Public Health Commissioner Kathleen Toomey, however, said more than half of the outbreaks in the state are connected to K-12 schools, Atlanta TV station Fox 5 reported Monday.
“Schools are a site where there is COVID transmission going on and we’re working hard with superintendents to try to address these issues in schools,” Toomey said.
What does the data show?
From Aug. 23-27, MCSD received reports of 201 positive coronavirus tests (174 students, 27 employees), compared to 196 (164 students, 32 employees) from Aug. 16-20. The total from Aug. 9-13 was 89 (65 students, 24 employees), according to the district’s news release.
The number of people in MCSD required to isolate or quarantine also more than doubled from the first week to the second. From Aug. 16-20, MCSD had 1,347 people (1,307 students, 40 employees) in isolation or quarantine, compared to 591 people (551 students, 40 employees) from Aug. 9-13, according to the district’s data.
But the isolation/quarantine total declined last week to 1,245 (1,197 students, 48 employees). MCSD announced Aug. 13 a change in its quarantine policy, cutting in half (from 6 feet to 3 feet) the distance to determine whether a student or employee has been in close contact with a person infected by the coronavirus if both people were wearing masks.
“Isolation” separates sick people with a contagious disease, and “quarantine” separates people who were exposed to a contagious disease, according to the CDC’s definitions.
The Georgia Department of Public Health’s COVID Status Report shows Muscogee County with 649 cases per 100,000 people during the past two weeks, as of Aug. 30. The state’s rate is 812.
Broken down by ages, Muscogee’s 14-day case rate per 100,000 people for ages 5-17 is 819, according to the state’s School-Age COVID-19 Surveillance Report. The state’s rate for ages 5-17 is 1,076.
Using the same measurement of community spread for MCSD, out of the district’s school-based population of 34,719 (30,526 students, 4,193 employees), the total of 397 cases during the past two weeks translates to 1,143 cases per 100,000 people.
The CDC’s COVID Data Tracker shows community transmission in Muscogee County, as well as the entire state of Georgia, is at the highest level on its scale.
Asked how school districts should decide when to close a school because the COVID level is too risky for in-person classes, Georgia Department of Public Health spokeswoman Nancy Nydam told the L-E in an email, “DPH defers to CDC guidance and recommendations for schools, but the ultimate decisions are made by the school/district. You will need to talk to them.”
