CEDAR CITY — COVID-19 cases within the Iron County School District are still on the rise but have slowed since last week, according to the district’s latest update issued Friday.
Over the past week, an additional 50 cases have been reported — 30 students and 20 staff — bringing the total cases to 245 since the start of the school year on Aug. 25, district figures show. That’s a 21% increase in student cases from the previous week and a 37% increase in staff cases; however, both percentages are down from the week before, which saw an 87% jump in student cases following the Thanksgiving break, along with a 43% increase in staff cases.
A total of 89 cases are considered currently active, up 25% from the preceding week’s 71 active cases. The remaining cases are classified as recovered.
Cases that can be definitively linked to school contact remain relatively low, although three additional student cases and five more staff cases have been added since Dec. 11, pushing the total to 21 school contact cases to date: 11 students and 10 staff.
The number of students and staff currently being quarantined districtwide dropped from 506 as of last week to 378 on Friday, a decline of 25%.
Superintendent Shannon Dulaney said those numbers are likely to drop even further after the Christmas holiday break, due to new recommendations regarding school quarantine protocols that were announced by Gov. Gary Herbert on Thursday.
David Carpio, iStock/Getty Images Plus, St. George News
The new procedures, which also will involve students participating in high school sports and other extracurricular activities, will take effect when school resumes on Jan. 4, Dulaney said.
Essentially, the new protocols eliminate the need for students to quarantine, even if they were potentially exposed to a known positive case, as long as they and the other student(s) were wearing masks.
“Students will no longer be required to quarantine if in close contact at school while wearing masks,” Dulaney wrote in an email Friday.
“Under these new guidelines, school personnel will notify parents of the contact and ask that they please monitor their student for COVID symptoms and keep them home if symptoms arise,” she added, noting that stringent guidelines such as wearing masks, social distancing and will remain in place for everyone who enters school buildings, including students, staff and visitors.
Additionally, teachers and staff are expected to soon have the opportunity to receive COVID-19 vaccinations as they become available, possibly as early as late December or early January.
“We’re not sure on the details yet on administering the vaccine or when we will get it,” Dulaney said, adding that district and school administrators will be working on the logistics over the holiday break.
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2020, all rights reserved.