School district reports 58 new cases of COVID
GREENWICH — With 58 new cases of COVID-19 reported Friday, the Greenwich Public Schools is seeing the largest oneday number of new cases since early January, according to the district’s online tracker.
That brings the total number of COVID-19 cases to 117 reported so far in April in Greenwich schools, with the 37 cases reported Tuesday and the 22 cases reported April 1 in the twice-a-week updates posted online by the district.
The district reported those 117 cases in just a week, which is 70 percent of the 167 total cases reported in all of March in the school district.
“We continue to experience small clusters of positive cases in a limited number of classes throughout the district, which seems to be typical across our region,” said Jonathan Supranowitz, director of communications and board of education liaison at Greenwich Public Schools.
“Starting next week, for those that are interested, we will be distributing self-test kits to staff and students,” he said.
The students and staff will get a weeklong break from classes later this month for Spring Recess, which will run from April 18 to 22.
“We will be encouraging our families to test their children before returning to school following our Spring Recess,” Supranowitz said.
This is the biggest oneday report since Jan. 25, when 61 new cases were reported. January as a whole saw a big spike of cases due to the omicron variant, with 1,422 cases reported in the whole month.
As of Friday, the school district had 65 active cases of COVID-19, with 53 cases among students, 11 cases among teachers and two among nonteaching staff members, according to the tracker.
Those cases were impacting 13 schools, with the most cases reported at North Mianus, with 16 active cases, and Parkway, with 11 active cases, according to the tracker.
Other impacted schools included Riverside, with eight active cases; Greenwich High, with seven active cases; Central Middle, with six active cases; North Street, with five active cases; Eastern Middle with three active cases; Cos Cob, Glenville and Julian Curtis, with two active cases each; and Western Middle, Hamilton Avenue and New Lebanon, with one active case each.
On March 1, the school district switched to a mask-optional policy in all of its buildings and buses. Previously, masks had been required for all students, teachers and other staff since the COVID-19 pandemic began. After the change in policy, the twice-a-week reports of new COVID-19 cases ranged from a low of 10 to a high of 30 in March, according to the tracker.
Since classes began Sept. 1, the school district so far has reported 2,387 cases of COVID-19, which is more than triple the 700 total cases reported in the entire 2020-21 school year.
According to the tracker, the monthly totals for new cases of COVID-19 reported in the Greenwich school district, have varied widely. The totals are: 117 cases so far in April; 167 cases in March; 137 cases in February; 1,422 cases in January; 392 cases in December; 65 cases in November; 29 cases in October; and 58 cases in September.
A number of families in the Greenwich Public Schools have been hit hard by COVID-19 this school year, with 406 families reporting 881 cases.
Since students and staff returned from the weeklong Winter Recess on Feb. 22, the district has seen 321 cases of COVID-19.
The school district updates the tracker on Tuesdays and Fridays to keep the community informed about the COVID-19 pandemic.