by J.D. Davidson
With the majority of Ohio school students back in the classroom, at least on a hybrid learning model, new data show COVID-19 cases related to school districts is relatively low.
Ohio’s new school dashboard and children’s dashboard launched this week, reporting 197 students and 122 staff members across Ohio have tested positive for the virus. That number is less than 1 percent of Ohio’s total cases so far.
The school dashboard shows new and cumulative COVID cases reported to schools by parents or guardians and staff. The information can be sorted by county or school district and shows information on both students and staff.
Schools are required to report cases to their local health departments, which then report to the Ohio Department of Health.
The children’s dashboard shows information about cases and hospitalizations related to COVID-19 among children 0-17 years old.
Both dashboards can be found at coronavirus.ohio.gov.
At the same time, DeWine reported five Ohio counties recently met the CDC’s definition of high incidence, although those five did not join the five Ohio counties under a red designation. The new five counties – Athens, Delaware, Green, Harrison and Pickaway – did not meet enough indicators to trigger an emergency designation, but they did have more than 100 cases per 100,000 over the past two weeks.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Ohio has 141,585 confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 and 4,580 confirmed and probable COVID deaths.
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An Ohio native, J.D. Davidson is a veteran journalist with more than 30 years of experience in newspapers in Ohio, Georgia, Alabama and Texas. He has served as a reporter, editor, managing editor and publisher. Davison is a regional editor for The Center Square.Â
