More than 50,000 school children have COVID-19 this semester

 

More than 50,000 schoolchildren have tested positive for COVID-19 this semester

Reported COVID-19 cases among K-12 students in Indiana jumped again this week, after the Thanksgiving holiday.

Four hundred three hundred and twenty-one new cases were reported among students this week, the highest number of newly reported cases since mid-September. The number of patients among the students decreased continuously for about two months until they started returning at the beginning of last month. There are 265 new cases reported among teachers and 442 among other employees.

This increase in new cases, particularly among students, reflects a generally marked increase across the state. The moving average of new cases in Indiana is 5,000, the highest since January.

All school-age children are eligible for the vaccination now, but rates among young adults are still low.

Roughly 12% of children ages 5 to 11 have had a single injection by this time, according to the government's Vaccine Information Panel. For 12-15-year-olds, this percentage is just over 40%, and for 16-19-year-olds, it's just over 46%.

The total number of student cases this year is 52,986. In October, reported cases among K-12 students exceeded the number recorded throughout the past school year. However, teachers and staff cases total about half of these totals for the past academic year.

This school year, 2.937 cases of COVID-19 have been reported among teachers and 4,484 among other faculty.

Those numbers are likely to be lower than what was happening in public schools this year. Although reporting is required, 414 of the state's 2.300 K-12 schools have yet to report to the dashboard this school year.