EDUCATION

Another week of few new COVID cases in area schools

Mitchell Boatman
The Holland Sentinel

A trend of few new COVID-19 cases continued in local schools this week, according to recent dashboard updates from area districts. 

Most local districts reported fewer than a dozen new cases this week.

An update Friday from Holland Public Schools showed nine student cases this week, along with one among staff members. Four of the student cases this week were at West Elementary, while three were at the high school and two were at Jefferson Elementary. 

Students at Jefferson Elementary say hello to a staff member ahead of the first day of school for Holland Public Schools Tuesday, Aug. 24.

So far this year, HPS has seen 53 student and 11 staff member cases. 

Holland Christian’s Friday update showed three student and three staff cases in its schools currently. There have been a total of 29 cases at Holland Christian this year, with 22 of those being students. 

More:No local school outbreaks for second time in three weeks

A dashboard update from Hamilton Community Schools posted Friday showed nine active student cases. Three of those are at the high school, with two at the middle school and one at each elementary building. 

There were also two active staff cases. In total, there have been 56 student and 13 staff member cases of COVID-19. 

Students arrive for the first day of school at Zeeland's Woodbridge Elementary Tuesday, Aug. 31.

Zeeland Public Schools posted an update Tuesday showing 19 active cases across nine of its school buildings. There were four cases at Lincoln Elementary and three each at New Groningen and Quincy. 

There have been a total of 81 cases in the district this school year. 

Black River, Fennville and Saugatuck did not report any new cases this week, as of 3 p.m. Friday. 

An update from Grand Valley State University posted Friday morning showed 110 active cases, up from the 68 reported in Monday’s update. The active cases include 41 students living off campus in Ottawa County, 33 off campus students living in Kent County, 18 faculty and staff members and 11 students living on campus. 

The seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases per day in the GVSU community was at 10.86 per day in Friday’s update.

— Contact reporter Mitchell Boatman at mboatman@hollandsentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter @SentinelMitch.