COLUMBUS, Ind. — Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp. officials said the school corporation isn’t seeing a rapid increase in COVID cases following spring break, with 26 positive COVID-19 cases reported since the week before spring break began.
“Having more students in our buildings may result in a higher number of cases and certainly increases the potential for more close contacts,” said Superintendent Jim Roberts. “Our experience also indicates that cases tend to increase after prolonged breaks. However, our current positive case numbers are not showing an increase. ”
BCSC recently wrapped up its spring break, with students returning to classes on March 22. As of Tuesday, Roberts said that there have been 26 cases since March 5 (spring break began on March 10). He said that 206 close contacts have had to quarantine as a result of those cases.
That 26 cases over three weeks is an average of about nine cases a week, compared to an average of 20.5 cases per week over the prior four weeks, Roberts said.
Since March 5, there have been 11 high school positive test cases (all students) and 76 close contacts (about seven per student).
March 22 also marked the return of high school students to traditional in-person learning for the first time since November, when school corporation moved to districtwide eLearning.
For more on this story, see Thursday’s Republic.
