VDH Has a New K-12 “Outbreaks” Dashboard

by Carol J. Bova

The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) published a new dashboard on October 23 that lists K-12 Outbreaks of COVID-19 by locality (county, town or city) and facility. As the VDH website explains: “Transmission must occur within the school facility or at a school-sponsored event among students, faculty, staff, or visitors to be classified as a school-associated outbreak.”

Schools covered are public, private, charter or parochial schools from kindergarten to 12th grade, and pre-kindergarten, if part of a K-12 school if 30 or more students are enrolled. Fewer than five cases or deaths are suppressed. Cases from exposure outside the school setting are not included unless the virus is passed on to someone at the school.

The dashboard lists the date VDH was notified, the school, number of cases, deaths should any occur, and the status of the outbreak. Outbreaks are listed as “In Progress” until 28 day elapse without a new case. They are then marked as “Pending Closure” until the local Health Department officially closes the outbreak.

The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) lists 1,860 public K-12 schools, and 1.298 million students for the 2019-2020 year. The VDOE does not maintain statistics on private schools, but the Virginia Council for Private Education lists 472 accredited schools.

The Outbreaks tab on the VDH website, shows a total of 36 outbreaks with 174 cases. Only 25 from 19 localities are shown on the first posting of the Educational Outbreaks Dashboard. Two of these 25 are in progress, the others are closed or pending closure. The earliest outbreak listed was reported on April 10th, the most recent, October 9th, so it is likely the other 11 outbreaks are more recent. VDH will update the dashboard weekly.

If the K-12 numbers remain low, we can hope it will lead to a full reopening of our K-12 schools.

Carol J. Bova is a writer living in Mathews County.