HCPS To Release Dashboard With Coronavirus Data
HARFORD COUNTY, MD — Harford County Public Schools will release a dashboard showing data with coronavirus information about confirmed cases of the virus in the school system.
So far, 12 employees have tested positive for the virus, according to Superintendent Sean Bulson. He said that 10 people who work for Harford County Public Schools had contracted the coronavirus as of Friday, and two other employees reported positive test results Monday, which was the first day of in-person instruction in the school system since March.
No students who attended the 41 Learning Support Centers tested positive for the virus since the centers opened Sept. 8, according to Harford County Public Schools Supervisor of Health Services Mary Nasuta.
Nasuta and Bulson provided the update on coronavirus cases at Monday's Harford County Board of Education meeting.
Cases were "not clustered at any one school" and "have been scattered," Nasuta reported. "We don't know exactly where people are getting COVID — it could be anywhere in the community."
Later this month, the school system plans to release a dashboard with coronavirus data on its website. Each week, Harford County Public Schools expects to update the page with data such as the number of those who are quarantining and the number of confirmed cases, according to Nasuta.
During the Learning Support Center phase, Nasuta said the small number of people participating made it difficult to maintain confidentiality so the addition of more students and teachers would make it more feasible to protect people's health information while releasing data to the public.
Once it goes live, the dashboard will be housed on hcps.org/hcpstogether.
"Barring any unforeseen issues, my plan is to release it on Friday, October 23, 2020," Jillian Lader, manager of communications for Harford County Public Schools, told Patch in an email Tuesday.
Harford County Public Schools will not be alone in publishing coronavirus data.
In neighboring Pennsylvania, one district is releasing data by school.
Here in Maryland, Towson University created a page with coronavirus data showing the results of coronavirus tests of students and faculty/staff at the university's health center.
Harford County has its own coronavirus dashboard through the Harford County Health Department. The Maryland Department of Health also maintains a dashboard that breaks down data by county, age and other information. In addition, the state has a dashboard for congregate living cases.
Harford County has about 2.5 percent of the coronavirus cases in Maryland. It represents about 4.2 percent of the state's population.
There have been 3,288 confirmed cases of the virus in Harford County as of Oct. 13, according to the Maryland Department of Health, which reports 73 people in the county have died from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.
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This article originally appeared on the Bel Air Patch
