Blaine schools see three Covid-19 outbreaks

Blaine school district superintendent Christopher Granger announced in his April 22 community message that the district had three separate Covid-19 outbreaks. An outbreak consists of at least three students in a classroom testing positive or 10 percent of a cohort. Parents of impacted students were notified individually, Granger said.

Working with Whatcom County Health Department (WCHD), he said the district is able to maintain in-person learning for the students involved in the outbreak by requiring masks and twice-weekly rapid antigen testing. Students who test positive or are symptomatic are asked to stay home and contact the school nurse, communications director Lisa Moeller told The Northern Light in an email.

The district’s Covid-19 dashboard on its website shows it has 27 new cases. Nine Blaine Primary School, three Blaine Elementary School and 15 Blaine Middle School students tested positive in the week of April 11-17. 

The last time the district moved classes to remote learning was for a four-day week at the end January when the week before it hit a district record of 153 reported Covid-19 cases. The week before that it had 144 cases. Since the week ending February 20, all schools hadn’t seen more than three cases in one week, and altogether the district hadn’t seen more than 10 cases in a week. 

Granger said during an April 25 school board meeting that the rise in cases is not unique to the district. According to WCHD data, the county has seen an increase in cases this month. 

“When the community rates go up, school rates go up,” Granger said. “So we’re seeing that reflected in our numbers in our school district, as the community rates go up in Whatcom County.”

Right now, the district is only considering removing impacted cohorts of students to remote learning if more cases develop, Granger wrote in the community message.

He also said the district is no longer offering daily PCR testing for students and staff because of changes with the provider. For those looking for local PCR testing options, visit testdirectly.com.