COVID-19 Cases Mounting As Staff And Students Return To School

Cuyahoga County health officials released more detailed information on COVID-19 cases in local school districts at a news briefing on Friday.

The most recent cases involve a Cleveland Metropolitan School District staff member and students at two private schools. There have, however, been nearly 40 confirmed COVID-19 cases in area schools,  according to health officials.

CMSD students are not yet in buildings, as the district started the year with remote schooling.

The private schools with confirmed cases of the virus are Holy Name High School in Parma Heights and St. Leo the Great School in Cleveland. Each reported one student case.

“This week, cases have been more of a trickle than a flood in the school environment,” said Romona Brazile, the Cuyahoga County Board of Health's co-director of prevention and wellness, who has been working with school districts on contact tracing.

If there are multiple cases in a school, people should not assume that is necessarily an indication of an outbreak, Brazile said. 

When a student or staff member tests positive, school officials isolate the person and work to identify a list of people with whom they may have been in close contact. Those people must then stay home from school for 14 days, Brazile said.

So far, lists of close contacts have been short, she said, which may reflect proficient distancing measures at schools.

The Ohio Department of Health released this information about confirmed COVID-19 cases in K-12 schools in Ohio Thursday. The data was collected from Sept. 7-13. 

New cases reported this week will be shown on the state’s dashboard Thursday, Sept. 24.

Prior to Sept. 7, officials said there were 34 cases reported in the county’s K-12 school districts. Officials initially declined to disclose the names of the schools and districts, but released them Thursday:
•    Mayfield Schools: nine students, one staff member
•    Brecksville-Broadview Heights School District – two staff members
•    East Cleveland School District – five staff members
•    Gilmour Academy – one student
•    Hathaway Brown – one staff member
•    Holy Name High School – two students
•    North Olmsted City Schools – one staff member
•    Padua Franciscan – one student
•    Solon City Schools – four staff members
•    Strongsville – four students, one staff member
•    Trinity – one student
•    University School – one student

Previously, health officials have said cases in schools were related to sports. 

The American Academy of Pediatrics recently updated its guidance for youth sports, recommending athletes who have been exposed to COVID-19 should sit out all practices and games for a minimum of 14 days. They also recommend COVID-19 patients be cleared by their pediatrician before returning to play. 

Cuyahoga County’s health board will only release data for only K-12 schools going forward, according to a spokesperson from the board of health. In the past, officials had also included data from the county’s colleges and universities.

Health officials are working with other local health departments and the state to figure out the best way to report college cases, Health Commissioner Terry Allan said. There have been difficulties determining which health department will handle the case if a student’s permanent home address is in a different county than where they currently reside for college, Allan said.

“We are transferring those cases to the appropriate jurisdiction where they reside,” he said.

“That’s a new process to be able to accurately reflect where an exposure may have taken place, to be able to track cases, and look for evidence or concerns about clusters

Allan encourages people to refer to colleges’ individual COVID-19 dashboards to find the most accurate numbers in their student population.

Overall, cases slightly rose in the county this past week, said Medical Director Heidi Gullett. The county reported 269 new cases and 26 deaths, according to county data.

On average, the county saw just under 50 new cases each day, which is higher than in previous weeks, she said.

The rate of positive COVID-19 tests declined to 3.4 percent, she said.

“Even though this doesn’t capture every test in our community, because we don’t have access to all the tests that are done, we feel that … we’re trending in the right direction,” Gullett said.

On Friday, ODH released recommendations for Halloween activities, such as Trick-or-Treat. The decisions to hold activities have been left up to local communities.

Cuyahoga County officials are in the process of reviewing the state’s suggestions, Allan said.

“Give us a chance to take a look at those guidelines, and based on what the state has come up with … we’ll make determinations on whether we need to have additional supporting information for our communities,” he said.

Some of the state recommendations for Trick-or-Treat include sanitizing candy wrappers, limiting the number of houses children visit and staying at a safe distance away from those passing out candy.