COVID cases remain high in local schools

Mitchell Boatman, The Holland Sentinel
·2 min read

Cases of COVID-19 remain elevated in local schools as districts returned from Thanksgiving break Monday, some from a full week break due to COVID-19 closures.

Michigan reached a new high for COVID-19 hospitalizations Monday, with 4,181 confirmed inpatient cases. There were 48 children hospitalized in the state, with another 139 suspected cases among hospitalized children.

The state's School Related Cluster and Outbreak Report was not updated Monday due to last week's holiday, but local districts posted updates to their case counts.

There have been 106 cases of COVID-19 in Holland Christian schools this year.
There have been 106 cases of COVID-19 in Holland Christian schools this year.

An update from Holland Christian posted Monday showed 34 student and 12 staff cases currently active in the district. There were 13 student cases at Rose Park Elementary, 11 at the high school and six at Forest School. Eleven of the staff cases were in those three schools as well.

Holland Christian has now had 106 total cases this year, including 74 students.

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West Ottawa Public Schools had 23 active student cases as of Monday. Eight of these were at West Ottawa High School, with no other building having more than two. There were also eight staff cases at WOPS.

For the school year, West Ottawa has had 349 cases among its student body.

Holland Public Schools reported 26 new cases in an update Friday — 19 students and seven staff members. Six of the student cases were at Jefferson Elementary with five at Holland Middle, four at Holland High and three at HLA.

Holland Public Schools welcomed students back to class Tuesday, Aug. 24.
Holland Public Schools welcomed students back to class Tuesday, Aug. 24.

So far this school year, HPS has reported 148 student cases and 35 staff cases of COVID-19.

Black River posted an update Monday, showing three new cases in the previous 24 hours. There have been 56 cases of COVID-19 at BR this school year, including 30 during November.

An update from Hamilton Community Schools reported 29 positive student cases in the district Monday. Fourteen of those were at Blue Star Elementary, which was on last week’s outbreak report.

There have been 141 student and 25 staff cases of COVID-19 in Hamilton this school year.

School COVID-19 cases for the 2021-22 school year
Infogram

Saugatuck Public Schools reported a pair of new cases last week, one each at Douglas Elementary and Saugatuck Middle School. There have been 22 total cases in the district this year.

Fennville Public Schools reported 10 new cases last week, nine of them students, in a pair of letters posted to the district website. There have been 72 total cases at FPS this year.

Grand Valley State University last updated its dashboard Saturday, Nov. 27, and reported 155 active cases. Of those, 55 were students living off campus in Ottawa County, 46 were students living off campus in Kent County and 17 were students living on campus.

The seven-day average for new cases per day at GVSU was at 11.43 per day as of Saturday.

— Contact reporter Mitchell Boatman at mboatman@hollandsentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter @SentinelMitch.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: COVID cases remain high in local schools