Outbreaks reported in 10 Oakland County schools
Ten new COVID-19 outbreaks with 47 new cases were found in Oakland County schools last week, up from zero the previous week.
Statewide new cases dropped by more than half from 947 to 428, while school outbreaks dropped to 76 from 101 the previous week, according to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services which reports school outbreaks each Monday.
The 10 Oakland County schools with the new outbreaks — all among students — are St. Williams Catholic in Walled Lake (3 cases), Walled Lake Central (3 cases), Wixom’s Loon Lake
Elementary (3 cases), Wixom Elementary (3 cases), Southfield’s McIntyre Elementary (5 cases), Norup International Academy in Oak Park (4 cases), Bradford Academy in Southfield (3 cases), Beverly Elementary in Beverly Hills (3 cases), Lawrence Tech University football team (12 cases) and Webber Elementary in Lake Orion (5 cases).
Nine Oakland County schools continue with ongoing COVID outbreaks: Keller Elementary in Royal Oak (four cases), Holy Family Regional School (two outbreaks, seven cases) in Rochester Hills; Lake Orion High School (seven cases), Berkshire Middle School in Beverly Hills (three among students and staff), Troy Union Elementary (three among students), Country Oaks Elementary in Commerce Township (two outbreaks with a total of six cases), Troy’s Wattles Elementary (two outbreaks and a total of 11 cases), Berkeley’s Angell Elementary (four cases) and West Bloomfield’s Keith Elementary with three cases.
Ongoing outbreaks are those that had already been identified in previous weeks but have had at least one new associated case reported to the local health department in the last 28 days. Outbreaks are removed from the list when there are no new confirmed or probable COVID-19 cases identified after 28 days have passed since the last known school exposure from a case.
In recent weeks the MDHHS has adopted new standards for determining outbreaks and cases in K-12 schools.
With the new outbreak definition the local health department must find multiple cases comprising at least 10% of students, teachers or staff within a specified group. Or, at least three cases within a specified core group that meets criteria for a probable or confirmed school-associated COVID-19 case with symptom onset or positive test result within 14 days of each other; who were not identified as close contacts of each other in another setting outside of the school setting; AND epidemiologically linked in the school setting or a schoolsanctioned extracurricular activity are considered outbreaks.