Carroll County Public Schools reported Wednesday 339 positive cases among students and staff as COVID-19 numbers continue to decline significantly across the school system.
This is the fourth consecutive week that overall case numbers have declined, after peaking at 1,313 cases reported for the week ending Jan. 12.
Mount Airy had the most positive COVID cases among middle schools for the third consecutive week with 22. Last week, the school emailed parents to confirm an official COVID-19 “outbreak,” according to Karl Streaker, director of student services in the school system. The Maryland Department of Health defines an outbreak as two or more linked positive cases, Streaker said.
The school system’s COVID dashboard, which updates weekly on Wednesdays, reported 339 positive cases for the entire school system for the week ending Feb. 9. That number was down from 448 in the seven-day period that ended Feb. 2. For the period ending that ended Jan. 26, the total number of positive cases was 635.
This week’s total includes 10 staff members and 329 students. A total of 130 people were in quarantine in the school system this week, which is the lowest number of people in quarantine during this school year, according to the dashboard.
Quarantine data reflect the number of individuals required to quarantine because they are a close contact to a positive COVID-19 case. The quarantine data do not reflect individuals in quarantine because they are COVID positive.
In CCPS this week, Freedom had the most positive cases among elementary schools with 23, while Winfield reported 22. Sandymount reported 17, while Taneytown and Linton Springs each reported 13.
Among middle schools, the highest number of cases was at Mount Airy, while Oklahoma Road reported 11 cases, and Sykesville and East each had 9.
Francis Scott Key and Manchester Valley each had the most positive cases among high schools with 17, while Liberty had 11, and Winters Mill reported 10 cases.