Delaware's school COVID cases stand at .17% of all students

By Tim Mastro

DOVER — Delaware’s K-12 public schools posted their third-lowest total this academic year of in-person contagious COVID-19 cases among students over a seven-day period, according to the Delaware Division of Public Health’s weekly report, released Wednesday.

The data, which has 243 cases for students and also shows 38 cases among staff, was tracked Nov. 6-12. It represents 0.17% of the estimated 141,040 public school students — slightly up from 0.15% (209 cases) the previous week.

That previous week of Oct. 30-Nov. 5 and the first week data was tracked, Sept. 4-10, when 130 in-person contagious cases were reported (0.09%) are the only two weeks with a lower number of cases than the week of Nov. 6-12. It was also the third consecutive week in-person contagious cases made up less than 0.2% of the estimated 141,040 public school students.

The state has recorded a total of 3,099 in-person contagious cases among students this school year — 2.2% of all public school students. An additional 578 cases have been reported among staff.

Private school data is still not available and will be released when those schools’ enrollment information is available near the end of this month, according to DPH. Public school enrollment data is still preliminary and will be finalized later in the fall, said DPH.

The data published on the state’s coronavirus website is for all Delaware public schools, including 19 districts and 23 charter schools, which are part of the public school system.

In-person contagious cases are defined as “persons who were present at school as far back as 48 hours prior to the onset of symptoms (or test date if no symptoms). The source of infection of these cases cannot be attributed to schools, nor is it known that they are the source of infection to others in schools.”

The Red Clay Consolidated School District, the state’s most populous district with an estimated 16,422 students, has the most in-person contagious cases this year with 331 and recorded the most cases for Nov. 6-12 with 34.

Delmar and Sussex Tech each reported zero in-person contagious cases among students for the week of Nov. 6-12, the only two districts in the state to do so.