Here’s how to keep track of COVID cases in Tri-City school classrooms
Tri-City students are already back to regular in-person learning — crayons, pencils and homework in hand.
But local school districts say that, for the fourth school year, they’ll continue tracking COVID-19 cases and outbreaks.
Caseloads for Richland, Kennewick and Pasco will be posted regularly on their online dashboard.
School district dashboards
- Kennewick School District’s dashboard can be found at bit.ly/kennewickcovid. Their page also includes information on how to upload a positive at-home test, free COVID testing opportunities and how parents can consent to have their student tested.
- Pasco School District’s dashboard can be found at bit.ly/pascocovid. On Tuesday, the first day back to school, the district had already reported 17 new cases; nine staff cases and eight student cases.
- Richland School District’s dashboard can be found at bit.ly/richlandcovid. Richland is updating its COVID dashboard at 4:30 p.m. every Friday.
Dr. Amy Person, public health officer with the Benton-Franklin Health District, said she expects an increase in the number of cases reported as students head back to school in the coming days. But that doesn’t mean that more people will get infected.
“Over the summer, the number of reported cases in children dropped dramatically and I doubt that’s because there’s less infection in those kids,” she said.
New cases among students and staff mostly went unreported over summer break when they would normally be recorded by the health district. Public schools will still be required to offer tests to students and staff who request them, and report any outbreaks.
“We likely will get more positive tests,” she said. “But that doesn’t necessarily mean that kids are being infected because they’re going to school. It means that because schools are doing more testing we’re able to get better data on the kids who do have infections.”
Students and staff this school year will not be required to wear face masks, and over the summer the CDC updated its guidance recommending all children 6 months and older get vaccinated.
Person said it’ll be interesting to see how these two new developments affect transmission in the area.
More than 58 outbreaks have been reported in Tri-City schools since the start of the pandemic, though nearly all of them occurred outside the classroom, she said.
COVID transmission in classrooms remain rare, she said, as schools are required to follow public health guidance.
Last week, COVID transmission rates among residents in Franklin and Benton counties are rated “medium,” according to community data posted on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website.
Nine of Washington’s 39 counties have the same rating, Garfield County is rated “high,” and the other 29 counties are rated “low.”
This story was originally published August 31, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
