Several school districts see upswing in COVID

Texarkana and Queen City Independent School Districts led all districts in new COVID case counts for the last reporting period, according to data released by the Texas Department of State Health Services.

TISD added nine new student cases and five new staff cases, while Queen City added five student and five staff cases for the reporting period of Nov. 30 to Dec. 6.

TISD’s amount of new student cases brings their total on-campus student positivity rate to about 2.5% now — around average for Bowie County districts. They have a total of 136 student cases and 115 staff cases reported since July 27.

Queen City’s total student positivity rate is now

4.1%, second-highest in Cass County. They have 35 total student cases and 42 total staff cases.

The only other Cass County district to report new cases was Atlanta with three student cases and four staff cases.

Other Bowie districts to add new cases include Dekalb, six students and three staff members; Pleasant Grove, New Boston and Liberty-Eylau, all with three staff members; Hooks, two staff members.

Despite not having new student cases listed in the last three reporting periods, Red Lick ISD was reported to have 27 total student cases, which with its relatively low on-campus population, brings its student positivity rate to 6.87% — the highest of any district in both counties.

The lowest total student positivity rate in Bowie would be Simms ISD, sitting at around 0.6%.

McLeod ISD holds the highest rate in Cass (4.4%), while Hughes Springs ISD remains the lowest (0.93%).

All new cases were reported with a source of infection of either off-campus or unknown.