Upper Cumberland Schools See Drop In COVID Numbers

Some Upper Cumberland schools are seeing a drop in COVID cases after an initial spike when school began.

DeKalb’s Director of Schools Patrick Cripps said they’ve seen a consistent drop by the day in their numbers. He said their numbers have dropped all the way to the teens.

“You know we haven’t changed anything from what we started the school year with,” Cripps said. “You know we’ve stayed pretty consistent with what we’ve done from the beginning as far as quarantining and contact tracing and things of that nature.”

Cripps said they actually became less stringent with their contact tracing procedures compared to last year. He said that after looking at close contact tracing numbers of students they sent home against students who then tested positive, the numbers weren’t high enough to continue on in the same way. He said that when a student tests positive in a classroom, they send a notice to parents and give them the option to quarantine their child.

The Putnam County School System has seen a dramatic shift in the number of positive COVID cases. Communications Supervisor Hannah Davis said the system has gone from a peak of 299 cases down to 71 as of Thursday. Davis said it is encouraging to see protocols working.

“That spike that took place recently called for us to kind of shift back into some practices that we put into place last year,” Davis said. “Some of those were already in place but some of those we had to bring back out, like limiting visitors in our buildings.”

Davis said the system can often predict what COVID will be like inside schools, based on what’s happening in the county. She said when they see a drop or spike in community spread, it often translates to school COVID cases.

While some school systems have seen spikes in COVID numbers, the White County School System has not. School Health Coordinator Marcie Kinnard said student infection rate has been lower than five percent the entire school year.