State reports outbreaks at 8 schools

Eight schools in Michigan were experiencing an outbreak of COVID-19 as of August 27. That’s according to the state’s outbreak dashboard, which reports outbreak numbers every week.

While the dashboard specifies the region of each outbreak and whether it was in a K-12 school or a college or university, state officials refuse to be any more specific.

Most of the outbreaks are in K-12 schools, which has parents and teachers concerned as in-person classes begin at some Kalamazoo County schools.

None of the listed outbreaks are in Region 3, which includes Kalamazoo County and most of southwest Michigan. However, the dashboard also doesn’t list any outbreaks in Region 2, which includes Central Michigan University where 134 people have tested positive for the coronavirus as of Friday.

The dashboard also doesn’t list the number of confirmed cases tied to each outbreak.

Bridge Michigan reports that Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, Michigan’s chief medical executive, has said the state would name schools where outbreaks are occurring, but not until after the state has made changes to its reporting system. There is no indication of how soon those changes could be made.

You can read more at Bridge Michigan.