SCHOOLCRAFT, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – Area school officials say the COVID-19 infection rate in Kalamazoo County classrooms has soared since the mask-mandate was lifted.
The increases have also coincided with the appearance of the highly infectious Omicron variant, and the spread of the virus at holiday family gatherings. The availability of test kits has also been an issue.
According to their own dashboard, about 25% of the students in Schoolcraft Community Schools have tested positive for COVID-19, most of them in the last month.
Superintendent Rick Frens says they tried to continue contract tracing, but it’s been too much, and so they are now going to a blanket policy when a student tests positive that every student in that class will be strongly urged to mask up and monitored for symptoms for ten days.
Frens says it’s an unprecedented situation and they are doing their best.
Schoolcraft’s infection rate of 25% is the highest in the county. About 18% of the students in Vicksburg and Gull Lake schools and 15% in Portage and Galesburg-Augusta classrooms were infected.
Kalamazoo Public Schools, which has maintained a mask mandate, has a rate of just 9%.
Comstock Schools had the lowest reported rate at just 3%.
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