The local schools with the highest number of new cases reported Sept. 21-27 were Springboro, with eight new cases (seven students, one staff), Troy with four new cases (all students), and National Trail with four (three students and 1 staff).
National Trail moved all high school students back to online learning this week, while Springboro and Troy continue with their in-person classes for students who chose that model.
Springboro and Troy also had the highest number of new cases locally last week. Springboro is up to 19 total cases from Sept. 7-27 (17 students), while Troy is up to 11 in that period (six students, five staff).
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Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said Thursday that schools are doing the best they can, and are doing a good job, but there is concern with the percentage of cases in older people rising again.
“Our concern was that when we saw an outbreak with kids, that it would lead to an outbreak with older Ohioans,” DeWine said. “We are seeing that, but what we don’t know is if there’s a cause and effect (from schools).”
DeWine repeated his position that if 80-85% of people wore a mask in public and avoided big events, “we’d have this thing under control.”
The statewide number of new school-related cases also continued to grow slowly, according to ODH’s data Thursday. Counting both students and school staff, this week’s COVID dashboard showed 440 new cases, up from 394 the previous week and 247 in the first week of reporting. Each week, student cases made up almost two-thirds of the total.
Question of accuracy, timing
But there are some issues with how and when the data is reported. In the first two weeks of the ODH school dashboard, there was only one new case reported in any of Montgomery County’s schools. In the new data released Thursday, nine Montgomery County schools show up in the dashboard for the first time, but their cases are not labeled “new.”
That means each of those schools reported a single case at some time in the first two weeks from Sept. 7-20, but it wasn’t reported in the dashboard as “new.” The schools are Alter, Chaminade Julienne, Bishop Leibold, St. Charles (Kettering), Vandalia-Butler and West Carrollton (with one student each), and Centerville, Dayton and the DECA charter schools, each with one staff member testing positive.
A state health order requires schools to report COVID-19 cases to public health officials within 24 hours of discovering the case. The weekly reporting period ends each Sunday, and health officials have three and a half days to compile the data for the weekly 2 p.m. Thursday release.
St. Charles sent a letter to families Sept. 12, notifying them of a positive case and saying they were working with officials from Public Health Dayton & Montgomery County. But that case did not show up in the state’s Sept. 17 or Sept. 24 dashboard.
Dan Suffoletto, spokesman for Public Health, said a number of issues could be responsible for the reporting lag, from the people in charge of reporting at each school, to a backlog at Public Health to an aging technology system used to produce the reports. Suffoletto said he has not heard of any issues with local schools declining to report known cases.
The accuracy/timing issue is not just a local one, as 193 statewide cases have never shown up in the dashboard as “new” cases. The statewide number of school COVID cases labeled as “new” on Sept. 17, Sept. 24 and Oct. 1 adds up to 1,081. But the cumulative total of cases shown this Thursday for all three weeks is 1,274.
NEW CASES REPORTED IN DAYTON-AREA SCHOOLS SEPT. 21-27
Greene County
Beavercreek — 2 students, 1 staff
Bellbrook — 1 student, 1 staff
Fairborn — 2 staff
Miami County
Covington — 3 students
Milton-Union — 1 student
Newton — 1 student
Piqua — 1 student, 1 staff
St. Patrick — 2 students
Tipp City — 1 student, 1 staff
Troy Christian elementary — 2 students
Troy — 4 students
Preble County
National Trail — 3 students, 1 staff
Tri-County North — 2 staff
Warren County
Franklin — 1 staff
Lebanon — 2 students
Springboro — 7 students, 1 staff
Waynesville — 1 student
Warren JVS — 2 students
Montgomery County
Mad River — 2 students
Miami Valley CTC — 1 student
Miamisburg — 1 student
Northmont — 1 staff
Other
Tecumseh — 1 student
CASES APPEARING IN DASHBOARD FOR FIRST TIME, BUT NOT LISTED AS “NEW”
Alter — 1 student
Bishop Leibold — 1 student
Centerville — 1 staff
Chaminade Julienne — 1 student
Dayton — 1 staff
DECA — 1 staff
St. Charles — 1 student
Vandalia-Butler — 1 student
West Carrollton — 1 student
Source: Ohio Department of Health
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