Masks Found To Decrease Other Sicknesses In White County Schools

Masks are protecting students from more than just COVID with White County Schools seeing a decrease in other sicknesses.

During Thursday’s White County School Board meeting, Cumberland Family Care Dr. Ty Webb gave a COVID update. He said in his practices, cases of strep throat overall have became minimal.

“Strep this year, I don’t know what you guys have seen at schools, we have not seen any in the office,” Webb said. “In terms of other contagious illnesses, they are almost gone from being spread around from person to person.”

Director of Schools Kurt Dronebarger said that the school system is seeing the same trend. Webb said flu cases have also dropped, but it is unknown if that season has started.

“We don’t know if we had have a flu season or not,” Webb said. “That is always variable. The rest of the world really hasn’t seen a flu season. Like Southern Hemisphere, they usually get it before we do and almost none, and the only difference is strict mask wearing, and they did a really good job at that in those countries.”

As for COVID, White County Schools currently stand in the green on the state’s dashboard. Dronebarger said the amount of quarantines and positive COVID cases have been very manageable two weeks into the school year.

“We are coming off Christmas break, and we have had several snow days,” Dronebarger said. “So, that has helped our numbers.”

White County Schools have conducted in-person learning this school year with a mask requirement.