MS now reporting COVID-19 cases, outbreaks by individual schools. Look at Coast data.
Mississippi’s state health department listed new COVID-19 numbers at individual schools for the first time in Wednesday’s report, including an outbreak last week at Harrison Central High School.
Gov. Tate Reeves lifted his state-wide mask mandate on Wednesday, but masks will continue to be required in schools.
The Mississippi State Department of Health reported COVID-19 totals for the year for each school and detailed stats for the week of Sept. 21-25, including both public schools and private schools in the Catholic Diocese of Biloxi.
The new outbreak at Harrison Central High last week involved 10 students testing positive for the coronavirus and 137 students asked to quarantine from Sept. 21-25 — the most for any school during that time period in the state’s southernmost six counties.
Last week provided almost half of Harrison Central’s positive cases among students since the 2020-21 school year began. There have been 21 student cases at the Lyman high school.
For schools that had five or fewer new cases, the health department showed only that there were between 1-5 cases at those schools in an effort to protect the privacy of faculty and students.
For instance, Long Beach High School reported 1-5 new cases and had 95 students in quarantine.
Long Beach placed its entire football program in a 14-day quarantine last week and canceled its next two games.
Long Beach Middle School, which placed its entire student body in a two-week quarantine on Tuesday, reported 1-5 new cases among students last week with 22 students in quarantine.
Biloxi High School, which went to long distance learning for two weeks starting in August, reported no students in quarantine last week. The school has reported 28 students testing positive and 12 outbreaks since the start of classes.
There was an outbreak reported at St. Martin North Elementary last week with nine members of the staff testing positive for COVID-19. Student cases were between 1-5.
There were three teachers and 22 students at St. Martin North Elementary in quarantine last week.
The school is in the Jackson County School District, which only quarantines students and staff if a doctor recommends it.
With 36 cases total, East Central Middle School in Jackson County has reported the most students testing positive for the coronavirus since the start of the school year.
COVID-19 stats of note in South Mississippi schools
GEORGE COUNTY
The George County School District reported its numbers for the entire district with 15 teachers and 15 students testing positive since the start of class. There has been no outbreak in the district this year.
HANCOCK COUNTY
Only parochial schools have reported numbers with Holy Trinity Catholic Elementary and Our Lady Academy reporting 1-5 students testing positive for the school year. The entire Hancock High School football team is currently in quarantine.
HARRISON
Biloxi High school, which has had 12 outbreaks, has reported 28 students testing positive this school year. At Gulfport High School, eight teachers have tested positive.
JACKSON
Ten teachers at St. Martin North Elementary have tested positive this school year, including nine last week to qualify as an outbreak. East Central Middle School, which has reported five outbreaks, leads South Mississippi in most students testing positive since the start of classes with 36.
PEARL RIVER COUNTY
Pearl River Central High School is the only school to report an outbreak in the county since the start of class. Picayune High School has had the most students test positive with 11. Pearl River Middle School has had seven teachers test positive.
This story was originally published September 30, 2020 at 11:14 AM.
