More than 100 COVID cases reported among students, staff this school year

More than 100 COVID-19 cases have been reported among students and staff members in Oak Ridge Schools since the school year began July 29.

An Oak Ridge Today tally shows 117 total cases, while an Oak Ridge Schools dashboard shows 115.

Most of the cases, 94, have been reported among students, while 21 have been reported among staff members, according to the school system’s dashboard.

The Oak Ridge Schools dashboard, which was last updated Tuesday, showed 65 recovered cases of COVID-19 and 50 current. The school system does not report information about the outcomes of individual cases, but as of mid-November, all confirmed cases were reported to have been relatively mild.

The number of new COVID-19 cases reported by Oak Ridge Schools dropped significantly last week, but the number of new cases reported among staff members increased.

The school reported 24 new cases of COVID-19 in the school week from Wednesday, November 18, to Tuesday, November 24. That was down from a record high 38 new cases in the prior week. It was a 37 percent decrease in the total number of new cases.

The reduction in student cases, a subset of the total new cases, was even larger, 50 percent. Seventeen new cases were reported among students in the most recent school week, compared to 34 in the previous week.

During the past three weeks, the largest percentages of new student cases have been among middle school students. New cases reported among middle school students increased from seven new cases one week (of 12 total) to 22 the next (of 38 total) to 11 this most recent week (of 24 total).

During that same time period, the number of new cases reported among staff members has increased from three the first week to four the next to seven last week.

Oak Ridge Today is designating a school week as Wednesday to Tuesday since the school year started on a Wednesday.

The increase in cases among middle school students, in particular, occurred after they returned to class five days per week on Monday, November 2. But it’s not clear if the events are connected. The middle schools have since returned back to alternating schedules.

More generally, the cases among Oak Ridge Schools students and staff members have surged since fall break, although it’s not clear if there is a connection between those two events either.

The surge in cases among school students and staff members during the past five weeks or so has occurred as COVID-19 cases have increased at an high rate in Anderson County, Roane County, Tennessee, and the United States, with record highs being set in new cases, daily deaths, and current hospitalizations.

Oak Ridge Schools Superintendent Bruce Borchers has said about 80 percent of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the school system have been exposed to the virus outside of school, according to information provided by parents.