By Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


More local school districts are reporting COVID-19 outbreaks and cases.

Hutchings Elementary was added to the state’s Outbreak list released on Monday. Howell Public Schools Spokesman Tom Gould tells WHMI the Livingston County Health Department notified the district that it determined that two cases of COVID-19 at Hutchings Elementary appear to be linked. He says Hutchings Elementary communicated with their families about the initial case, a staff member on November 12th. Gould says during the time that all individuals identified as close contacts of the staff member were in quarantine, a student tested positive. He says the Health Department believes that contact tracing, quarantine efforts, and mitigation strategies have worked correctly and that the risk for further transmission in the school linked to these two cases is very low. Since the two cases are linked by time and place, Gould says it fits the criteria to be considered an outbreak.

Gould says the district is in close contact with the Health Department and will continue to work in partnership with them and follow their advice and guidance to ensure the safety of students and staff. As for other cases in Howell Public Schools – two have been reported over the past week at Southwest Elementary and one each at Parker Middle School and Highlander Way Middle School.

Additionally, new cases have also been reported in other local public school districts in the last week. In Brighton Area Schools, there are 15 new COVID-19 cases spread across the district. In Fowlerville Community Schools, there’s one case at the high school. In Hartland Consolidated Schools, there are six total cases – three at Ore Creek Middle School and then one each at Creekside Elementary, Village Elementary and Hartland High School. Finally, two cases are attributed with Pinckney High School.

Meanwhile, both St. Patrick's School in Brighton and Cleary University in Genoa Township remain on the state's outbreak list after being added last week. Outbreaks are removed from the list when there are no new confirmed or probable COVID-19 cases identified after 28 days have passed since the last known school exposure from a case.