Pierce County reports 50 school-related COVID outbreaks, most happening in classrooms
The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department (TPCHD) reported 50 school-related outbreaks on Thursday, with a majority of them happening in classrooms.
Of the outbreaks, 75 percent of them started in the classroom, and 82 percent of classroom outbreaks happened in elementary classrooms, according to the new data.
“The remaining were mostly in middle and high schools and usually sports related,” TPCHD said in a Thursday update.
TPCHD changed the way it reports school outbreaks last week. Instead of by region, outbreaks will be listed in one of the following categories: classroom, sports, transportation or other (non-sports extracurricular activity).
The first round of data dropped Jan. 20 and showed a majority of outbreaks stemming from sports. A TPCHD spokesperson said they are not planning to release outbreaks by type of sport.
This week looks different, with a jump in classroom outbreaks as students return to the classroom following winter break. Last week there were two school outbreaks reported, and this week there are 34.
TPCHD defines K-12 school outbreaks as 3 or more cases or 10 percent or more of a group in a shared location over the last 28 days. Outbreaks remain on the list for 28 days and then drop off if no new transmission occurs.
School outbreaks as of Jan. 27 are as follows:
- Sports: 12 (72 cases)
- Classroom: 34 (106 cases)
- Transportation: 1 (3 cases)
- Other: 3 (60 cases)
