In just two weeks, the number of new coronavirus cases in area school districts has increased by 393%, according to the latest state figures.
In the week ending Dec. 23 there were 320 cases in the 14 districts in The Sun Chronicle coverage area.
But in the week ending Jan. 5, that number jumped to 1,578 out of a total of 30,009 students in the districts, according to numbers posted Thursday by the state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Despite the big jump in new cases, the percentage of those contracting coronavirus was relatively small, 5.26%.
Two weeks ago the 320 students with the disease equaled 1.06% of the area’s student population.
Meanwhile, there were 362 staff members who contracted coronavirus in the two-week period ending Jan. 5.
That number equals 8.91% of the 4,065 staff in the districts.
Two weeks ago the number was 47, or 1.15%.
And according to the Broad Institute in Cambridge, it’s likely that as many as 95% of recent cases are of the omicron variant, a milder form of coronavirus.
Wrentham had the highest percentage of students with coronavirus, 8.14%, or 75 out of 971 students.
Norfolk Agricultural High School had no students with the disease.
In terms of raw numbers, Attleboro had the most cases with 325, or 5.54% of its 5,866 students.
Mansfield had the second highest at 245, 7.13% of its 3,437 students.
Statewide the total number of students with the disease as of Jan. 5 was 38,887, or 4.26% of the 911,520 population.
There were 12,213 staff members afflicted with the disease, or 8.95% of 136,349.
So the area is running about one percentage point over the statewide average and is about the same as the statewide percentage of staff with the disease.
In the week ending Dec. 23 the statewide percentage of students with coronavirus was 0.93% and the percentage of staff members with coronavirus was 1.1%
George W. Rhodes can be reached at 508-236-0432.
