Report: Community spread risk still ‘moderate’
As schools reopen Berks remains in middle category
As the first school districts in Berks County start welcoming a new school year this week, the risk of community spread of COVID-19
remains moderate.
The weekly update of a risk assessment tool created by the state Department of Education and Department of Health kept Berks in the middle of three risk categories for the week ending Friday.
The new tool was introduced two weeks ago to provide school districts planning how to start the new school year — in-person, virtually or a mix of the two — additional information. It uses county-level COVID-19 data on incidence rate and the percent positivity of diagnostic testing to group counties into one of three categories of risk of community spread: low, moderate or substantial.
For each of those three categories, recommendations on how to educate students is provided:
• Low risk — Full in-person or a mix of virtual and in-person that reduces the number of students in a school at one time.
• Moderate risk — A mix of virtual and in-person that reduces the number of students in a school at one time or full virtual.
• Substantial risk — Full virtual.
Berks has been in the moderate category for each of the four weeks rated by the tool.
All but one district in the county will start the new school year following the tool’s guidelines. Hamburg
School District is planning to reopen fully in-person when classes begin there Thursday.
Eight Berks districts will begin the year fully virtually, while nine will use a mix of virtual and in-person lessons.
Oley Valley was the first district in Berks to start the 2020-21 school year,
kicking things off Monday. Brandywine Heights School District started Tuesday.
By the end of the week another six districts will start, and eight will begin next Monday. Conrad Weiser and Tulpehocken have starting dates of Sept. 8.
Across the state, 45 counties are in the moderate category and 21 are deemed low risk. Union County is the lone county in the substantial category, but that is mostly linked to an outbreak at a federal prison.