School outbreaks infected 9% more in the past week

As of last week, 7,889 students and staff had been sickened by COVID-19 in the state. That’s according to the latest school-based outbreak report from the state of Michigan. And it’s a 9% increase over last week’s numbers.

There were 53 new outbreaks reported on Monday – none of them in Kalamazoo County. Of the 218 ongoing outbreaks, four are in Kalamazoo County: at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo College, Comstock Elementary, and Heritage Christian Academy.

As has been the case since the beginning of the semester, the vast majority of infections have taken place at colleges and universities. They account for 6,572 of the infections reported, while K-12 schools represent just 960 infections. The remaining 357 are school administrators and related staff.

It is expected that new school outbreaks will decline quickly in the coming weeks. That’s because of a state health department order issued last week that puts a pause on in-person classes for high school and college students for three weeks.