COVID cases continue rising in county schools

COVID-19 cases continue to rise in Spokane County schools even as some districts have opted to share less information with the general public.

As of Monday, local districts have about 300 cases among students and staff.

On Friday, the Mead School District reported 60 positive tests among students and staff. That was the highest number since late February, though still far below the levels seen in January.

However, the district announced last week that it would no longer post the daily dashboards that had been a staple since the fall of 2020.

The area’s largest district, Spokane Public Schools, has posted only weekly updates since that time. On Friday, it reported its sixth consecutive increase in positive tests to 90 students and staff who had a confirmed case of COVID-19 and entered a school building in the previous five school days.

That’s up from 64 a week earlier and only nine cases on April 7, when cases began to climb post-omicron.

However, the district shows no major COVID hotspots. As of Friday, North Central High School and The Community School each had 10 positive tests, while Moran Prairie Elementary School had nine.

The Central Valley School District reported 40 positive cases, up from 23 two weeks earlier.

Cheney continues to show relatively high COVID metrics, with 35 cases in the past two weeks. East Valley reported 17 cases and West Valley eight on their most recent dashboards.

Medical Lake currently has nine cases, Riverside three, Coeur d’Alene 10 and Post Falls two.

Deer Park has not updated its dashboard since March 25, while the Lakeland Joint School District in Rathdrum did not maintain one this year.