State reports COVID-19 outbreaks at three local schools – The Times Herald

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A COVID-19 nasal swab test kit sits on a table Thursday, Aug. 13, 2020, during a clinic held by the St. Clair County Health Department at Yale High School.(Photo: Brian Wells/Times Herald)

The state of Michigan reported this week three schools in St. Clair County were experiencing COVID-19 outbreaks. Local health officials said the outbreaks happened before the closure of school buildings in recent weeks, and their reporting on the state's website was delayed.

"These cases should not be taken out of context," St. Clair County Health Department Public Health Officer Dr. Annette Mercatante said in a written statement."The trends of the school outbreak postings is that outbreaks are slowing down with switching to all virtual, which is what we would expect. Outbreaks in other congregate settings that continue to be in person continue to increase. It can be safely assumed that if you are still going out to work, play or socialize you will have exposure to COVID-19 and eventually will get infected. This is resulting in greater hospitalizations and other stressors on our healthcare systems and will result in further deaths."

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Port Huron High School and Capac Elementary School were reported to have outbreaks only among staff, with Landmark Academy having an outbreak among both staff and students. Port Huron High School had two cases reported in the outbreak, Capac Elementary School had three cases and Landmark Academy had four cases.

An outbreak is defined as an educational institution having two or more COVID-19 cases who could have shred exposure on school grounds and are from different households. Students and staff believed to have been exposed to COVID-19 outside of school grounds and are not believed to have spread the virus in the school are not included in the state's outbreak reporting.

Information is reported by local health departments to the state, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services spokeswoman Lyn Sutfin said. Schools only report cases for individuals who were at school during their infections period.

Capac Community Schools returned to in-person classes for pre-kindergarten through sixth grade students, according to a post on the district's Facebook page.

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Contact Jeremy Ervinat (810) 989-6273 or jervin@gannett.com.Follow him on Twitter@ErvinJeremy.

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State reports COVID-19 outbreaks at three local schools - The Times Herald