Texas posts new COVID-19 data for school districts

TISD adds nine cases; McLeod has highest percentage

TEXARKANA, Texas — Texarkana Independent School District reported the highest number of on-campus COVID-19 cases this past week among districts in and around Texarkana, according to the latest Texas Department of State Health Services update.

For the period of Sept. 21 to Sept. 27, TISD added nine cases to their reports — three students and six staff members. This was four more staff members than any district in Bowie or Cass counties during this period.

While its student total for cases since July 27 is now at 37, TISD still sits below 1% of positive cases among students based on its on-campus enrollment count for the first week of school, which was 3,878 students, according to DSHS.

Other Bowie County districts that reported new cases included: Dekalb ISD, three students; Maud ISD, two students; and Pleasant Grove ISD, one staff member.

Among Cass County districts, McLeod reported the highest number of new cases, with three students and one staff member — source of infection for all was reported as off-campus.

Other Cass districts with newly-reported cases are as follows:

Atlanta ISD, two students and one staff member; Hughes Spring ISD, one student; Queen City, two staff members.

McLeod leads both Bowie and Cass counties in percentage of student cases among its population, with approximately 2.3% of its enrollment baseline for the first week of school, 388 students, testing positive for COVID-19 — nine students.

Dekalb (more than 1.7%) and New Boston (just under 1.6%) districts were the next two highest in percentage of total cases among on-campus students since July 27.

Among the lowest were Redwater (0.2%) and LibertyEylau (0.3%) districts, who both reported zero new cases for the most recent week period.

Most districts reported the source of infection for their cases as either off-campus or unknown, but Queen City has two cases with a reported source of infection that was on-campus.

All district-level data was obtained from the DSHS website, which posts weekly reports every Wednesday evening.