COVID cases in Chatham, Bryan, Effingham schools continue to decrease over past three weeks

This story has been corrected to reflect supporting data provided by the Coastal Health District.

COVID cases among students and staff in Chatham, Bryan, and Effingham schools continued to fall after a late summer spike due to the delta variant, tracking with the gradually decreasing number of cases among the tri-county area's general population.

According to numbers released Tuesday afternoon from Savannah-Chatham County Public Schools, the number of quarantined students decreased from 1,492 (4.14% of all students) the week ending Sept. 10, to 1,173 (3.26%) for the week ending Sept. 17.

SCCPSS numbers are just for the week specified and are not cumulative; in addition to the current numbers, previous weeks numbers are on the district website under the Health and Safety banner at sccpss.com.

More:COVID cases among students, staff drop for second week in Chatham, Bryan and Effingham counties

SCCPSS District Superintendent Ann Levett previously mentioned "around 50%" of the staff has had at least the first dose of the COVID vaccine. The latest data seems to attest to that as most school sites report none to very few COVID-positive staff. White Bluff Elementary reported six personnel are currently in quarantine, but no new COVID exposures to staff. White Bluff reported six students tested positive for COVID-19 last week.

Two schools — Isle of Hope K-8 and Rice Creek — report three staff members tested positive for COVID-19 for the week ending Sept. 17. The transportation department reported six COVID-positive cases. The report does not indicate if the school staff are teachers or other personnel; the transportation numbers do not indicate if the affected personnel are drivers, mechanics, or office staff.

The three Savannah-Chatham schools with the most students in quarantine due to an exposure to COVID as of Sept. 17 are White Bluff Elementary with 93, Islands High School with 82, and Groves High School with 80.

Bryan and Effingham county schools

Bryan County Schools report six total positive cases among its 11,500 students and staff for the week ending Sept. 17: two at the elementary level, one in the middle schools and three at the high schools. The data does not indicate if the COVID exposures are among staff or students; nor how many are in quarantine.

Bryan County Schools' numbers for Sept. 17 also also lower than numbers reported for Sept. 10. A total of 27 students and staff (0.2%) reported a positive COVID test the week of Sept. 10. Bryan County Schools' COVID data can be seen on its website at bryancountyschools.org under the COVID Information tab.

Effingham County Schools numbers also show a decrease in its COVID cases from the weeks of Sept. 6 to Sept. 13. Of Effingham's 13,600 students, 36 (0.26%) tested positive for COVID the week of Sept. 13, down from 58 (0.43%) the week of Sept. 6. Among its 1,800 staff, six reported a positive COVID test the week of Sept. 13, down from 12 the previous week. Effingham County School's data can be seen on its website at effinghamschools.com. The school numbers are not broken down by school level nor do the staff numbers indicate teachers or other school staff. The data does not indicate how many students or staff are in quarantine.

Barbara Augsdorfer is the education and nonprofits reporter for the Savannah Morning News. Reach her at BAugsdorfer@gannett.com or on Twitter @Babs7983.