City schools report 55 new COVID cases
GREENWICH — Another 55 cases of COVID-19 were reported Tuesday in the Greenwich Public Schools, according to the district's online tracker, as the number of new cases rises again.
The number of COVID-19 positive cases reported since classes began Sept. 1, 2021, for this school year now totals 2,664, nearly quadruple the 700 cases reported in the entire 202021 school year, according to the tracker.
The 55 cases reported Tuesday is an increase from the 44 cases reported last Friday; the district reported 339 cases of COVID-19 for all of April.
Those 339 cases for April are more than double the 167 cases reported in the district in March, according to the tracker. And the district was closed for six school days for Spring Recess in April.
As of Tuesday, the district was reporting 49 active cases, up from the 45 active cases reported last Friday. Those 49 active cases impacted 38 students, eight teachers and two service providers, according to the district.
Active cases of COVID-19 were reported in 13 schools, with the most at Greenwich High School, with 10 cases. That was followed by Eastern Middle and Riverside, with six active cases each; Julian Curtiss and Western
Middle, with five active cases each; International School at Dundee, with four active cases each; Cos Cob, with three active cases; Central Middle, Glenville, New Lebanon and North Mianus, with two active cases each; and Hamilton Avenue and North Street, with one active case each.
A number of families in the Greenwich Public Schools have been hit hard by COVID-19 this school year, with 444 families reporting 959 cases.
The school district updates its online tracker twice each week to keep the community informed on the COVID-19 pandemic.
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On April 26, the district had reported 63 cases of COVID-19 in the first report made after spring recess, which closed schools from April 15 to 24. The total cases reported since students and staff returned from recess is 162, according to the tracker.
In Greenwich schools, April ranks as third for the most cases of COVID-19 reported, with 339. And it also saw some of the largest daily reports since January, when the omicron variant hit and the district reported 1,422 cases for the whole month.
Since March 1, when the Greenwich school district moved to a mask-optional policy, a total of 561 cases of COVID-19 have been reported among students and staff.
According to the tracker, the monthly totals for new cases of COVID-19 reported in the Greenwich school district have varied widely, with: 339 cases 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.
As COVID-19 infections persist across Connecticut, the state's seven-day positivity rate hit 9.42 percent on Friday, the latest data shows. The state reported 5,700 new COVID-19 cases among 60,527 tests in the past week.
The state has designated 131 municipalities with a red zone alert, which means there has been 15 or more cases per 100,000 residents over the past two weeks. That includes Greenwich, which had a 10.8 percent positivity rate as of April 23, with 42.4 new cases per 100,000 residents, according to the tracker.
The rise in COVID-19 infections has largely been attributed to the omicron subvariant BA.2. As of last week, it accounted for 70 percent of new cases across New England, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.