3 New Coronavirus Outbreaks Reported In Michigan Schools Monday

MICHIGAN — Three Michigan schools have new outbreaks of the coronavirus, state health officials said Monday.

Weymouth Elementary School in Charlotte, Holland High School in Holland and Lake Superior State University in Sault Sainte Marie all have new outbreaks of the coronavirus, according to the latest coronavirus outbreak data released by the state.

According to the data, three staff at Weymouth Elementary School tested positive for the coronavirus. At Holland High School, one student and staff member have tested positive for the coronavirus. Two students at Lake Superior State tested positive for COVID-19.

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Monday's update is significantly lower than the state has seen in past weeks. However, last week Michigan added only three new school outbreaks and on Dec. 28 the state reported just seven new outbreaks in schools.

Overall, more than 519,000 cases of the coronavirus have been confirmed in Michigan, while over 13,000 COVID-19 deaths have been reported.

It's important to note that a coronavirus outbreak is different than a case. A COVID-19 outbreak is defined as two or more cases with a link by place and time indicating a shared exposure outside of a household.

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The information provided by the state on Monday includes K-12, college and university school name, address, number of cases and if the cases involved staff, students or both. Students or staff exposed to COVID-19 outside the school building and are not thought to have spread the virus in the school due to quarantine or self-isolation are not included in the data.

Many factors, including the lack of ability to conduct effective contact tracing in certain settings, may result in underreporting of outbreaks, MDHHS said. This information does not provide a complete picture of school outbreaks in Michigan and the absence of identified outbreaks in a school does not mean it is not experiencing an outbreak.