How are COVID outbreaks reported at Mississippi schools? Here’s what health dept. says.
The health department has now received detailed reports about coronavirus cases at many Mississippi schools, but only some of that information will be made public.
The Sun Herald has seen the online form schools are using to report the information, and it includes not only how many coronavirus cases they’ve recorded among students and teachers, if any, but also the location of outbreaks and grade levels of affected students.
By Monday, about 200 of the state’s 1,200 schools had submitted the form.
But the health department’s website will only list information by county, showing how many students and teachers have tested positive and how many people are quarantining, said Liz Sharlot, MSDH communications director. That could change eventually to include school-level information, she said.
Initially, the public will be able to see, for example, how many cases there are at schools across Harrison County, but not at Gulfport High School or Lyman Elementary.
Each week, every school in the state — public and private — is required to fill out a survey on confirmed COVID-19 cases. The first weekly reporting deadline was noon Monday, but many schools haven’t not started yet or are virtual-only for the fall semester.
Sharlot said schools will be responsible for disseminating more detailed information about outbreaks.
“Reporters can certainly call the school districts or individual schools,” she said.
State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs has emphasized the importance of schools reporting outbreaks. On Aug. 14, he issued an order requiring all Mississippi schools, public and private, to report detailed case information to the state weekly, “in order to have awareness of the current impact of COVID-19 in school settings.”
The data will help the state understand if any schools need to close temporarily.
“If they have three or more kids within a certain classroom or certain group, then all of them need to just be quarantined,” Dobbs said at a press conference earlier this month. “If we have three or more simultaneous groups of that nature, then that’s a time to consider letting the school have a two week break.”
But that data won’t necessarily translate into clarity for the public, or even for parents trying to understand the overall coronavirus status at their child’s school or school district.
At a press conference on Wednesday, Dobbs said that onboarding schools to the data collection system and ensuring the information is accurate is time-consuming. He added that he hopes schools will be transparent in reporting cases to their communities
“Every school is going to have coronavirus,” he said. “Every school gets the flu sometime.”
So far, districts on the Coast have taken a patchwork approach to publicizing positive cases and quarantines. In many cases, they have announced them publicly only when questioned by the media.
In others, they have issued press releases, typically when the number of affected students and teachers is large.
The lack of consistency in reporting has created confusion for parents, some of whom have taken to Facebook groups to try to figure out how many outbreaks their school districts have seen so far.
One parent posted a notification letter she’d received from Harrison County School District. It offered only the vaguest information.
“A student (or teacher/coach) in your child’s class (or name the classroom, group or team) has been diagnosed with COVID-19,” the letter said.
It advised the parent to monitor the child for symptoms and conduct temperature checks twice a day.
Children who were in close contact with the affected person received a separate notification and were instructed to quarantine, the letter said.
Here is the list of what MSDH said it will report to the public, and what schools are required to report to MSDH:
What MSDH plans to report on its website about school outbreaks:
- Totals for each county
- The number of students and teachers testing positive
- The number of students and teachers quarantining
What MSDH will collect from schools:
- Totals for each school
- Total number of positive COVID-19 cases since school started, for teachers and staff and for students, broken down by grade level
Total number of new COVID-19 cases last school week, for teachers and staff and for students, broken down by grade level
Whether any of the new positive cases include staff in the district office
If positive cases included district staff, titles of those who tested positive
Total number of students and staff quarantined last school week, broken down by grade level
Total number of outbreaks since school started, with an outbreak defined as at least three cases of COVID-19 “in an individual classroom or group sports team, group activity, band, other”
Total number of new outbreaks last school week, broken down by grade level
Location of outbreaks, including classroom, band hall, sports field, front office, computer lab, library, or “other”
This story was originally published August 19, 2020 at 5:40 AM.
