School COVID-19 cases continue to fall

Gabrielle Wade, 11, gets a hug from her mother, Elsa, as she gets dropped off for her first day of school in sixth grade at Osceola Middle School in Ocala, Fla. on Tuesday, August 10, 2021. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2021.

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Posted September 20, 2021 | By Matthew Cretul, matthew@ocalagazette.com

Marion County Public Schools saw COVID-19 numbers drop for the third consecutive week.

MCPS recorded 256 new cases for the week of Sept. 11 – Sept. 17. the cases included 209 students and 47 employees with confirmed COVID-19 infections, according to the Florida Department of Health in Marion County.

The figures, released Monday afternoon, are down from the 367 cases reported on Sept. 13, and 539 cases reported on Sep. 6.

The 256 cases are the lowest on record since the district reported 139 cases during Aug 10-13, which was the opening week of school.

Quarantine numbers were down as well, with MCPS reporting 959 students and employees were quarantined due to direct contact with someone testing positive for COVID-19. The quarantines included 949 students and only 10 district employees.

Additionally, the 959 quarantines are also the lowest since the first week of school, and only the second week total where there were less than 1,000 in quarantine.

The dropping school district numbers follow the downward trends of the county and state as a whole.

Parents continue to opt their children out of facial coverings, however. MCPS reported 9,346 students, or 22%, have an opt-out form on file which allows them to not wear a facial covering.

On Aug. 16, the Marion County School Board approved a resolution mandating a facemask policy for students and employees that included an opt-out provision. The resolution could last up to 90 days.

The district agreed the mask policy should remain in place until cases locally fall to at least 99 per 100,000 for two weeks before the policy is lifted and the positivity rate is at least 10% for the same time period.

On Friday, the DOH reported Marion had a positivity rate of 17.9% and the cases per 100,000 at 414.3.