Three schools report new cases
Shepherd, Breckenridge and mt. Pleasant among districts to disclose confirmed, probable infections
Three local school districts have reported additional cases of COVID-19. Two of them involve elementary schools.
A fifth-grade teacher for Shepherd Schools has tested positive for COVID-19, Interim Superintended Greg Mcmillan informed district parents Tuesday night.
“I apologize for interrupting your family time, but we have had a significant change in our district’s COVID-19 status,” Mcmillan said inane mail .“We have had our first, on campus, confirmed COVID-19 case. One of our fifth grade teachers has tested positive for the COVID-19 virus.”
Shepherd School District has two elementary schools, Shepherd Elementary School and Winn Elementary School. While the subject line of the email identified Shepherd Elementary School, the body copy just says a fifth-grade teacher.
The district reported it to Central Michigan District Health Department, whichmcmillan said began the process of contact tracing to identify who might have been exposed. Anyone determined to be a close contact will be quarantined at home. Any students who are quarantined at homewill move to virtual learning.
CMDHD has traditionally defined people as close contacts who’ve spent 15 minutes or more withinsix feet of someoneinfected. Anyone who develops symptoms and isn’t tested is classified as a probably positive case.
The case is the first confirmed case of COVID-19 involving a public school district in Isabella County.
Shortly after the Shepherd announcement, Breckenridge Community Schools announced on social media a confirmed case involving Breckenridge Elementary School. The district didn’t identify the grade, or whether it involved a student or staffmember.
The notice did say that all close
contacts have been identified by Mid-michigan District Health Department.
It is the second Gratiot County elementary school with at least one confirmed case of COVID-19.
Luce Road Early Childhood Learning Center, part of the Alma Schooldistrict, had an outbreak that involved 31 confirmed cases involving both students and staff last month.
No additional cases were reported there in Monday’s school outbreak update from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, suggesting that the outbreak has been contained.
Gratiot County’s cumulative confirmed cases increased by two Wednesday to 274, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. The county has had 40 probably positive cases — people who had close contact with a COVID-POSitive person and developed symptoms— and 16 deaths. Isabella County has had a cumulative total of 93 probable cases since March.
Also on Tuesday, Mt. Pleasant Public Schools Superintendent Jennifer Verleger announcedthat a second probable case involving at the district’s middle school.
The first probable case, a student who developed symptoms last Thursday, prompted all teachers in one of its teaching teams into quarantine until Oct. 15, returning to class on Oct. 19. That timetablewas not changed by the second case.
There are also hundreds of cases associated with central Michigan University.
Isabella County’s cases increased by 16 to 693, according to the MDHHS website. With a population of 70,000, once the county’s cumulative total number of cases reaches 700, 1 percent of the county’s population will have had a confirmed case of COVID-19. Fifteen people have died from COVID-19.
Case sinclare county increased by 10 Wednesday to a cumulative total of 115, with five deaths. Five more cases were reported in Montcalm County for a cumulative total of 348, with seven deaths. Eight more cases were reported inmecostacounty, for a cumulative total of 245, with three deaths. Eleven more cases were reported in Midland County, for a cumulative total of 574, with 12 deaths.
Gladwin County, with 103 cases and two deaths, remained unchanged.
Statewide, another 1,016 caseswere announced for a cumulative total of 130,842, with nine new deaths.