The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) has begun publishing coronavirus outbreak information broken down by school building.
The state had previously been confirming regions in which outbreaks were taking place at schools, but not identifying the individual schools or school districts.
Information now published by the state includes the school name, school address, county and city in which the school is located, the grades it serves, the cumulative number of cases and whether cases are among staff, students or both. The state tracks cases both at schools that are K-12 and post-secondary.
There are currently 27 schools that are seeing outbreaks — defined as two or more cases of COVID-19 — in Michigan.
Grand Valley State University currently has the most number of cases, with 438 confirmed cases of the coronavirus on its campus, all among students. Luce Road Elementary School in Gratiot County has the most confirmed cases among K-12 schools, with six confirmed cases of the coronavirus spread between students and staff .
“Parents and students should know that if their school is listed, their local health department and school are already investigating. Based on that investigation, people are contacted individually if they were possibly exposed to COVID-19 at school,” said Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, chief medical executive and chief deputy for health, in a statement. “Michigan schools are working hard to maintain a safe environment while also providing quality education.”
The state warned that inability to “conduct effective contact tracing” may impact the numbers, resulting in underreporting of outbreaks.
“This information does not provide a complete picture of school outbreaks in Michigan and the absence of identified outbreaks in a school does not mean it is not experiencing an outbreak,” MDHHS said in a statement.
Michigan currently has more than 113,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and a death toll of 6,612, according to data from the MDHHS. More than 85,500 people are considered recovered.
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Jordyn Pair is a reporter at The Michigan Star and Star News Digital Media. Follow her on Twitter at @JordynPair. Email her at [email protected].
