3 new school COVID clusters reported in CMS, most see no outbreak

Three Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools with recently-identified COVID-19 cases among students have been classified as being sites of clusters, according to the state health data released Tuesday.

While CMS data show nearly every school or work site in the district has reported at least one case lately, the overwhelming majority of those have not seen outbreaks. The district, like most public schools in North Carolina, requires teachers and students to wear masks indoors, in order to slow the spread of the virus.

New clusters were identified by N.C. Department of Health and Human Services this week at West Charlotte High, Whitewater Academy Elementary and South Academy of International Languages. All three just met the threshold of being a cluster site, meaning there were five or more cases in a two-week period traced back to transmission of the virus while at school or during a school activity.

At Whitewater Academy, six cases were reported among students. At West Charlotte and the language academy, there were five. None of the cases identified in the cluster or outbreak were among teachers or staff, DHHS reports.

At CMS schools that DHHS previously reported as having COVID-19 clusters, none of those outbreaks have worsened in the past week, DHHS data show. That includes Independence, Mallard Creek and Ardrey Kell high schools, as well as CMS’ Phillip O. Berry Academy of Technology.

During the week of September 11 to September 17, CMS reported 494 new COVID-19 cases among students or staff, with 153 of 180 schools in the district reporting at least one case, with close to 88% of those being among students. The recent data shows a slightly higher total caseload compared to new cases reported in CMS the week prior, total of 447.

In Mecklenburg, the county’s case rate is up again, though the number of people hospitalized has slowed and the positivity rate has dropped slightly.

The number of outbreaks or clusters affecting children or teens — reported by daycare or school setting, including non-CMS locations — has increased over the last month as students and teachers returned from summer break. An Observer analysis of public health data shows there were 10 total daycare/school outbreaks reported by Mecklenburg Public Health in mid-August. Last Friday, the health department reported 16 total.

State health data on how many cases have been reported by schools, including private schools in Mecklenburg, also indicate a rise over the last few weeks. Among those locations were health officials say infections spread while children were at school, there were 36 total cases among students in mid-August. On Tuesday, there were 78 cases associated with K-12 outbreaks in the county, DHHS data show.

CMS teacher vaccinations

Beginning this week, CMS employees will be asked to provide documentation of their vaccination status. Vaccinated staff must upload pictures of their vaccine card to confirm that they are vaccinated.

If they aren’t vaccinated against COVID-19, staff will be tested regularly.

Testing for unvaccinated teachers and staff in the school district will begin within two weeks at the elementary school level. Testing for students who have COVID-19 symptoms or want to reduce time spent in quarantine after an exposure is expected to launch in October.

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How schools report COVID cases

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools’ return-to-classrooms safety plan includes telling parents and guardians about any positive COVID-19 case they know about in their child’s school. That doesn’t always mean there’s an active outbreak and it doesn’t always mean your child was exposed to someone sick at school.

Aside from school-wide notification (which is often sent electronically by principals as a letter from county health department leaders), a separate notification will be given to any family of a child or to a staff member of officials believe they were likely exposed at school.

The process typically begins with a health care provider or COVID-19 testing provider notifying the local health department of recent positive test results. This notification is based on a person’s home county, meaning if a Charlotte resident takes a test away from home and the result is positive, Mecklenburg County officials are supposed to be notified.

Contact tracing and case investigation — the process of determining who might have been exposed, where the exposure happened and for how long, and then notifying individuals who may need to quarantine or be tested — will vary in effectiveness. For cases known in CMS, it’s a joint function of school officials and health officials to provide these notifications. There are times when a person who might have been exposed cannot be reached, or the identity of those exposed is not known.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools updates weekly a public dashboard that shows how many new cases were detected among students and staff, and how many people were instructed to quarantine, among other data. The county health department updates weekly its data on active local outbreaks and clusters. And the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services identifies clusters of cases in daycares and schools every Tuesday.