134 COVID-19 outbreaks linked to Washington state schools, according to new report
A total of 134 COVID-19 outbreaks occurred in K-12 schools in Washington state between August and February.
The outbreaks involved 526 COVID-19 cases, according to a March 31 report from the Washington State Department of Health.
Of the 526 COVID-19 cases, the median age was 21.5 years and 58 percent were female.
A majority of the outbreaks — 64 percent — involved two or three cases, and 49 percent of COVID-19 cases were students aged 18 and under.
For race, 46 percent of the people were non-Hispanic white, 9 percent were Hispanic, 7 percent were “other” and the remaining 39 percent were unknown. Less than 10 were hospitalized overnight, and there were zero reported deaths. Of the hospitalized cases, 80 percent were among adult staff.
Of the schools that experienced an outbreak, 40 were private and 94 were public. At the time of the reported outbreak, five schools were fully remote, 16 were teaching fully in-person, 26 were using a hybrid in-person and remote model, and 16 were primarily remote, with select students needing specific care attending in person. The remaining 71 schools either reported another learning model or data was unavailable.
The DOH defines an outbreak as occurring if:
There are two or more laboratory‐positive (PCR or antigen) COVID‐19 cases among students or staff,
The cases have a symptom onset within a 14‐day period of each other,
The cases are “epidemiologically linked,” or the patients had contact with one or more persons with COVID-19,
The cases do not share a household, and
The cases are not identified as close contacts of each other in another setting.
Pierce County missing?
Pierce County, the second largest county in Washington state, did not appear on the Department of Health’s report.
Of Washington’s 39 counties, 15 had at least one COVID-19 outbreak in schools. With a population of 900,000, Pierce County was the largest county that did not experience a school outbreak, followed by Grant County at 97,000 people.
Health department spokesperson Ginny Streeter verified after checking with the data team that Pierce County isn’t in the report because there were no outbreaks in that county at schools during the reporting period.
“There may have been some cases in schools, but there is very specific criteria that must be met … for it to be considered an outbreak,” Streeter said in an email.
The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department defines an outbreak as two or more COVID-19 cases in a shared location in the last 28 days.
As of April 1, TPCHD tracked nine outbreaks involving 24 individual cases. Four of them were located within Tacoma, with the remaining five in other areas of the county.
This story was originally published April 8, 2021 at 5:45 AM.
