Note: This story was updated with a new case at ORHS at 5:15 p.m.
Twenty-eight cases of COVID-19 have been reported among students and staff members in Oak Ridge Schools this school year, and six of those are current cases, according to data published by the school system.
The majority of the cases, 23 of the 28, have been among students. The most cases have been reported at Oak Ridge High School, with nine student cases and two staff cases, or 11 total.
Jefferson Middle School has had the second-highest total of cases, with five student cases and two staff cases, or seven total.
No cases have been reported at Linden Elementary School, Secret City Academy, and Willow Brook Elementary School.
As of Monday morning, before a 28th case was reported Monday afternoon, 21 of 27 cases were considered recovered. Six were active, with half of those, three of them, among ORHS students.
Last week, Oak Ridge Schools Superintendent Bruce Borchers said about 80 percent of the COVID-19 cases were due to activities outside of school.
By date, the largest percentage of cases among Oak Ridge students and staff—10 of the 27 cases—were reported in a three-week period from mid-August to early September, according to an analysis of the cases reported by date.
There was a plateau of about two new cases per week during a three-week period from early to late September.
Then, no new cases were reported in two weeks from late September to mid-October.
But in the past 12 days, seven new cases were reported, including five since Friday. It’s too early to say whether this is an anomaly or part of a trend.
Of the five cases reported since Friday, three affected ORHS students, one affected a Preschool student, and the other affected a Robertsville Middle School student. In letters to families, Borchers said one high school student was last at ORHS on Thursday, and the other wasn’t at school last week and hadn’t been in contact with other students since becoming infected. The Preschool student was last at school on Thursday. The RMS student was last at school on Monday, October 19. In the new case reported Monday afternoon, Borchers said that student was last at ORHS on Friday, October 16.
Borchers said people who might have had close contact with the infected students have been notified so they can quarantine.
The numbers reflect cases this school year. There were a few cases that were reported to have occurred during the last school year, including a staff member volunteering to help with food distribution in April and a staff member for extended child care in May.
Note: It’s not clear that Oak Ridge Today has information about all the cases, so our numbers may vary slightly from the school system’s.
| School Week | Number of Cases |
| Week 1 (July 29-Aug. 4) | 3 |
| Week 2 (Aug 5-Aug 11) | 0 |
| Week 3 (Aug 12-Aug 18) | 4 |
| Week 4 (Aug 19-Aug 25) | 1 |
| Week 5 (Aug 26-Sept 1) | 5 |
| Week 6 (Sept 2-Sept 8) | 0 |
| Week 7 (Sept 9-Sept 15) | 2 |
| Week 8 (Sept 16-Sept 22) | 2 |
| Week 9 (Sept 23-Sept 29) | 2 |
| Week 10 (Sept 30-Oct 6) | 0 |
| Week 11 (Oct 7-Oct 13) | 0 |
| Week 12 (Oct 14-Oct 20) | 2 |
| Week 13 (Oct 21-Oct 26 (partial week)) | 5 |
See our previous stories about COVID-19 in Oak Ridge Schools here.
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