School-age COVID-19 cases increase in Cumberland County as schools open

The Sentinel - 9/9/2021

Sep. 9—Since Aug. 16, 164 school-aged children in Cumberland County have been diagnosed with COVID-19, according to data released by the Department of Health Tuesday.

The weekly data now available on the department website shows that 92 of those cases were confirmed in children between the ages of 5 and 18 during the week of Aug. 26 through Sept. 1.

Case data available from the Centers for Disease Control shows that there were 17 cases of COVID-19 in children under 17 years of age in Cumberland County in August 2020. Another 40 cases were reported in September 2020.

Cases among school-aged children in the county, according to CDC data, reached a high of 383 cases in December 2020. In total, 1,796 of the total 2,009 cases of COVID-19 reported among children in the CDC data through Aug. 24 came during the 2020-2021 school year.

Also since Aug. 16, 32 children ages 4 and younger have contracted the disease. Twenty of those cases came during the week of Aug. 26 through Sept. 1.

Statewide, the difference between last year's and this year's case counts at the start of the school year is stark. For the week of Aug. 28 to Sept. 3, 2020, there were a reported 486 cases of COVID-19 among children ages 5-18. This year, there were 4,043 cases reported during the week of Aug. 26 to Sept. 1.

The county's school districts have taken different approaches to reporting case counts. Carlisle Area School District, for example, is posting the name of the school affected and whether or not contact tracing was needed.

Cumberland Valley School District and Shippensburg Area School District note on their websites that they are reporting only those cases that include a known school exposure.

School district case counts (updated Sept. 8)

Big Spring School District: No cases reported

Carlisle Area School District: 20 cases (+15 from Aug. 27 to Sept. 7)

Camp Hill School District: 8 cases since Aug. 25

Cumberland Valley School District: 14 cases (+7 from Sept. 6-8)

Mechanicsburg Area School District: 12 cases

Shippensburg Area School District: 19 cases (+11 since Aug. 30)

South Middleton School District: 8 cases (+7 since Aug. 27)

West Shore School District: 6 cases reported in the past 14 days (as of Sept. 2)

Email Tammie at tgitt@cumberlink.com. Follow her on Twitter @TammieGitt.

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