Texas Department of State Health Services Wednesday released 2 weeks worth of COVID-19 data for Texas school districts, including those in Hopkins County. The data about public schools was originally slated to be released on Sept. 23, but, due to “issues resulting from the integration of the school COVID case report data set with the school enrollment data set,” individual district data was not available until Sept. 30. Two reports were provided on Wednesday, one for the week of Sept. 14-20 and another for the week of Sept. 21-27.
TEA this year directed all school districts to submit information about COVID-19 cases going back to the start of the school year. Information is submitted via an online form each Monday by those school systems that were notified in the previous week that a student, teacher, or staff member who participates in any on-campus activity has tested positive for a current COVID-19 infection. Antibody tests, which indicate a previous infection, are not required to be reported, TEA and DSHS noted in a release.
The weekly state reports do not “replace the legal requirement that schools notify public health officials in their area of all cases.” Schools are still required, per TEA guidelines to inform all parents, teachers, and campus staff of any positive cases tied to their on-campus instruction or activities.
As a whole, 5,725 of the 1,080,317 students enrolled in Texas public schools and 4,132 of the 800,078 staff on campuses had tested positive for COVID-19 as of Sept. 27.
Student cases counts at public schools across the state steadily increased from 2 student cases on Aug. 2 to 1,521 student cases on Aug. 20. Last week, Sept 21-27, was a little better for students, declining to 1,490 student cases on campus during the week.
The number of Texas public school staff members who received positive COVID-19 results during the week has continued to increase from 30 during the week of Aug. 6 to 819 the week of Sept. 21-27.
Increases in the number of cases through the first week of August could also be due in part to the varied fall semester start dates of school districts across the state and even in Hopkins County.
In 6 of the 7 Hopkins County school districts, 60 students and 23 staff members were reported to have tested positive for COVID-19 from July 27-Sept. 27. Of those 83 COVID-91 cases, the source of infection was reported to be on campus in 18 cases, off campus in 9 cases and unknown for the remaining 56 cases, according to the Sept. 27 DSHS/TEA report.
DSHS/HHS noted that the weekly state reports may vary from data reported by school districts as the information is counted one week at a time by the state, but often is updated daily by schools.
Como-Pickton CISD
In Hopkins County, Como-Pickton reported 554 of the students enrolled were on-campus during the first week of school. The two reports indicated no active COVID-19 cases in either of the last 2 reporting weeks.
CPCISD has cumulatively since July 27 had 2 students in grades 4-6, 19 students in grades 7-12 and 3 staff members who have tested positive for COVID-19. Of those, 12 individuals were thought to have been on campus, 4 off campus when infected and the district was uncertain of the source of infection in 8 cases, according to the DSHS/TEA report.
Cumby ISD
Cumby ISD reported 371 of the 422 students enrolled in the district attended classes on campus during the first week of school. During the week of Sept. 14-20 two students in grades 7-12 and two staff members tested positive for COVID-19, with the source of infection considered to be on campus in three cases and off campus in one case.
During the week of Sept. 21-27, Cumby 3 new student cases for grades 7-12 were reported with the source of infection off-campus for 1 and unknown for the other 2 cases.
Cumulatively, from July 27-Sept. 27 Cumby ISD reported 7 COVID-19 cases among 7-12th grade students and 3 staff cases. Of those, on campus was reported as the source of infection in 3 cases, off campus in 2 cases and unknown in 5 other cases.
Miller Grove ISD
Miller Grove ISD reported 276 of the 307 students enrolled in the district during the first week of school attended classes on campus. No additional data was available for MGISD in report, which DSHS/TEA reports is an indication “no report has been received for a given district in the indicated time period.”
North Hopkins ISD
DSHS/TEA report no enrollment reports were received from North Hopkins ISD for the first week of school and on-campus enrollment.
NHISD, during the week of Sept. 14-20 reported one new case among students in grades 7-12; the source of infection was unknown.
During the week of Sept. 21-27, NHISD reported a new case each among students in grades 4-6 and 7-12 and two staff cases; the source of infection was unknown.
Cumulatively, from July 27-Sept. 27, NHISD reported 1 case among students in grades 4-6, 3 cases among students in grades 7-12 and 3 staff cases. Of those cases, the source of infection for 1 case was reported to be off campus; the source for the rest were unknown, according to the DSHS/TEA report.
Saltillo ISD
Saltillo ISD reported 219 of the 270 student enrolled on the first week of school attended classes on-campus.
No active case data was reported for Sept. 14-20 for the district, only a cumulative case count.
During the week of Sept. 21-27, Saltillo ISD reported one new case among students in grades 7-12 and the source of infection was believed to have been on campus.
Cumulatively, from July 27-Sept. 27, the district reported having 1 student enrolled in classes from early education through 3rd grade and 1 student in grades 7-12; the source of infection for both cases was reported to be on campus.
Sulphur Bluff ISD
Sulphur Bluff ISD reported 214 of the 225 students enrolled on the first week of school attended classes on campus.
No active cases data was reported for SBISD on either of the two reporting weeks, according to the DSHS/TEA report. However, a cumulative total was provided both weeks, and did not change./
Cumulatively, from July 27-Sept. 27, SBISD reported 1 student in a grade serving students from early education through 3rd grade, 2 students in grades 4-6, 3 students in grades 7-12 and 1 staff members were reported to have tested positive for COVID-19. Of those cases, SBISD reported the source for 1 case was reported to be on campus, another to be off campus and the source of the remaining five cases was unknown, according to the DSHS/TEA data.
Sulphur Springs ISD
Approximately 3,453 of the 4,294 students enrolled in Sulphur Springs ISD the first week of school attended classes on campus.
Of those, the district reported 1 student in grades serving students from early education through 3rd grade, 3 students in grades 7-12 and 1 staff member had received a new COVID-19 diagnosis the week of Sept. 14-20. The source of infection in all 5 cases was unknown.
During the week of Sept. 21-27, SSISD reported 1 new case among students in grades 4-6, 6 new cases among students in grades 7-12 and 5 new staff cases. SSISD reported the source of all 12 new cases was unknown.
SSISD reported the following cumulative cases counts from July 27-Sept. 2: 4 cases for early education through third grade, 2 case grades 4-6, 14 cases grades 7-12 and 13 staff cases. Of those 33 cases, SSISD reported the source of infection of one case was known to have been off campus but was unknown for the other 32 cases.
Yantis ISD
First week enrollment numbers and new case data for nearby Yantis ISD were not reported as of Sept. 27, according to DSHS/HHS. The district did list cumulative case counts, which were the same for both weeks.
The district reported 1 student in grades 4-6 and 1 staff member had tested positive for COVID-19 from July 27-Sept. 27. YISD reported the source of infection for both was off campus.
