School COVID cases remain down as orders expire

As COVID-19 mitigation policies are relaxed in the Holland area, local school districts are continuing to see few new cases in their buildings.

School cases have declined for several consecutive weeks, following local and statewide trends. The trend has led the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, Ottawa and Allegan counties and local districts to update COVID-19 policies.

A dashboard update from West Ottawa Public Schools showed 33 active cases among students, as well as six among staff members. For the school year, WOPS has reported 1,276 student cases.

Students at West Ottawa's Pine Creek Elementary on the first day of the 2021-22 school year.
Students at West Ottawa's Pine Creek Elementary on the first day of the 2021-22 school year.

Although Zeeland Public Schools’ overall dashboard was last updated Feb. 10, building level data has been updated to show just five active cases in the district across three elementary schools.

There have been a total of 972 cases of COVID-19 in ZPS buildings this year.

More: Holland Public Schools to drop mask mandate

More: Allegan County Health Department reducing COVID-19 services after board vote

More: COVID case rates continue to drop in local schools

Black River Public School posted an update Monday reporting one new case in the previous 24 hours. So far this month, there have been 15 cases at the middle school/high school and 13 at the elementary school.

For the school year, Black River has reported 252 cases of COVID-19.

There were no new cases reported at Holland Christian over the weekend, although five previously reported student cases remain active. There have been a total of 318 cases this year among HC students and staff.

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

The number of active cases at Grand Valley State University dropped to 63 in an update Monday, down from 101 in the previous dashboard update.

Active cases included 21 students living off campus in Kent County, 18 living off campus in Ottawa County, 13 faculty and staff and four students living on campus.

GVSU’s seven-day average for new cases per day was 6.57 as of Monday. That average was more than 33 cases per day at the start of the month.

Michigan’s weekly update to the School-Related Outbreak Report was not posted Monday, Feb. 21, due to the President’s Day holiday.

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

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: School COVID cases remain down as orders expire