Now, 2 Columbus area school districts have 0 active COVID cases reported. See data here

Some school districts in the Columbus area have been issuing weekly news releases announcing the number of reports they’ve received about students and employees testing positive for COVID-19 and those in quarantine. Others have been posting the data online or not at all.

Here’s the Ledger-Enquirer’s roundup of the information available to help understand how prevalent the coronavirus pandemic is in local schools for the 2021-2022 school year.

This dashboard is updated weekly as new data is made available.

Note: School districts don’t conduct COVID-19 testing, so the case numbers are based on reports given to them. This story was last updated Feb. 23.

Muscogee County

The Muscogee County School District’s number of reported coronavirus cases declined for the fourth straight week.

From Feb. 14-18, MCSD had 19 reported COVID cases (16 students, three employees), compared to 49 cases (38 students, 11 employees) from Feb. 7-11, according to the district’s news release.

MCSD announced Feb. 4 masks will be optional in district buildings, starting Feb. 14.

The district’s highest number of weekly reported cases this school year was 276 (206 students, 70 employees) from Jan. 18-21. The district was closed Jan. 17 for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

The lowest level of reported COVID cases this school year in MCSD came Nov. 8-10, when nine cases (four students, five employees) were reported. Students were off one day that week for Veterans Day.

The weekly number of people in MCSD required to isolate or quarantine also decreased.

From Feb. 14-18, MCSD had 34 people (30 students, four employees) in isolation or quarantine, compared to 60 people (49 students, 11 employees) in isolation or quarantine from Feb. 7-11, according to the district’s data.

“Isolation” separates sick people with a contagious disease, and “quarantine” separates people who were exposed to a contagious disease, according to the CDC’s definitions.

The number of COVID-19 cases accounts for in-person students and school-based employees reported with active infections during the specified week. The number of quarantine and isolation cases for in-person students and school-based employees represents the total, considering quarantine periods of 14 days could overlap with reporting weeks.

MCSD has 30,822 students and 5,175 employees, including 3,633 based in a school.

Harris County

The number of reported COVID cases in the Harris County School District declined for the fourth straight week.

And that number is down to zero, compared to seven coronavirus cases (four students, three employees) from Feb. 8-14, according to the district’s news release.

HCSD implemented a mask-optional policy in all district buildings Feb. 8.

The district’s highest level of COVID this school year is 74 cases from Jan. 18-24. The district’s previous lowest level this school year was two cases from Nov. 16-19.

The number of people in the district who had close contact with an infected person also decreased down to zero, compared to 17 close contacts (all of them are students) from Feb. 8-14, according to the district’s data.

Following guidance from the CDC and the Georgia Department of Health, HCSD revised its COVID-19 protocol as it relates to close contacts as of Jan. 14.

Students in close contact with a COVID-19 positive case, regardless of vaccination status, may continue to attend school if they remain asymptomatic and have no fever without medication for 24 hours and if they wear a mask for 10 days from the time of exposure.

School system staff who have been identified as a close contact may continue to work if they have no symptoms.

“For COVID-19, per CDC guidelines, a close contact exposure is defined as any individual who was within 6 feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes from two days (48 hours) before illness onset (or, for asymptomatic patients, two days prior to positive specimen collection) until the time the patient is isolated,” HCSD says in its news release.

HCSD has 5,545 students and 795 employees.

Chattahoochee County

The number of reported COVID cases in the Chattahoochee County School District was zero for the second straight week, according to the report on ChattCo’s website.

The district’s peak this school year was 39 COVID cases during the week ending Sept. 3.

Masks have been optional in district buildings since Jan 28.

ChattCo no longer releases the number of people in quarantine across the district for possible exposure to COVID-19.

In a Jan. 25 email to the Ledger-Enquirer, ChattCo superintendent Kristie Brooks said the decision to no longer report quarantine numbers is “based on the recent guidelines” from the Georgia Department of Public Health. The L-E has asked her to specify the change in the guidelines and will update this story when that answer is received.

“Much of this revision is due to the strong practices of our families as we are encouraging anyone to remain home if any symptoms of any illness are present,” she said. “Because of this and so many illnesses that occur in the winter months, we realize that numbers posted would not consistently provide accurate information.”

The change publicly was discussed at the January school board meeting and was announced via social media, Brooks said.

ChattCo has 935 students and 141 employees.

Phenix City

The Phenix City Schools weekly coronavirus report showed four COVID cases were reported in the district during the week ending Feb. 18. It was the fourth straight week of declining cases.

As a result, in a Feb. 18 letter to parents posted on the PCS website, superintendent Randy Wilkes announced, beginning Feb. 21, all district buildings will have a mask-optional policy. Face coverings will remain required on all buses, per federal mandate.

“This correspondence will be the last weekly report from this office unless matters necessitate its return,” Wilkes said in the letter. “Parents, please continue to report COVID-19 cases. In the future, schools will notify students and parents of protocol changes.”

The highest level of cases in PCS this school year is 159 (129 students, 30 employees) during the week ending Jan. 21. The district’s lowest level this school year came the week ending Nov. 26, when PCS had one case.

PCS has approximately 7,340 students and 860 employees.

Russell County

The Russell County School District started posting its COVID-19 data for the 2021-22 school year Sept. 3 on its website. Instead of weekly numbers, RCSD reports cumulative data that isn’t broken down into students and employees.

As of Feb. 18, RCSD had received reports of 427 positive coronavirus tests among students and faculty (11% of the school-based population), an increase of three from the previous report on Feb. 11, according to the district’s data. That marks RCSD’s third straight decline of weekly cases.

The district’s highest number of weekly cases this school year is 50 during the week ending Jan. 28 . RCSD’s lowest weekly increase is zero from Oct. 15-22 and Nov. 5-12.

An additional 12 RCSD students and faculty were in isolation or quarantine Feb. 11-18, pushing the cumulative total this school year to 1,710 (43%), according to the district’s data.

RCSD continues to make wearing masks mandatory in its buildings.

“Our positive COVID-19 cases have decreased, however we feel that it is in the safety of our students and employees to continue wearing masks until after Spring Break,” RCSD spokeswoman Paula Thompson told the L-E in a Feb. 22 email. “. . . We will revisit the possibility of making masks optional after we return from Spring Break.”

RCSD has approximately 3,500 students and 525 employees.

Lee County

No data about the reported COVID-19 cases and quarantines is evident on the Lee County Schools website, and the superintendent didn’t reply to this week’s query from the L-E before publication.

The Alabama COVID-19 K-12 Schools Dashboard, which is updated Thursdays, shows the number of reported coronavirus cases among LCS students and employees was 13 during the week of Feb. 17, compared to 50 the previous week.

The highest level of cases for LCS this school year is 444 during the week of Jan. 27. The lowest level is zero during the week of Dec. 2.

The dashboard doesn’t report the number of students and employees in quarantine.

LCS has approximately 9,500 students. The number of employees wasn’t available.