As Washington County’s COVID-19 deaths and positive test rates have increased this week, an update on COVID-19 cases and procedures was given at the Washington Community School Board meeting Wednesday.

The state coronavirus dashboard shows one new death this week bringing the county’s total to 54. The county’s seven-day positive test rate increased from 7% last week to 10% as of Thursday, with over 100 new positive tests. In the first regular board meeting since the start of the school year with no mask mandate in place, Superintendent Willie Stone informed the board that as of Wednesday evening the district has 38 students and six staff members at home due to testing positive. Stone says that they are not sending parents letter notices of individual positive cases in the district as he believes it has become “white noise” to them, “With there being not a mask mandate people have to assume that their kids are, they’ve been around it at some point in time during the day, that’s probably just reality. So we do have several kids that are wearing masks, we have some staff members who are choosing to wear masks and it hasn’t been a problem from anything I’ve heard. This is just kind of the way we do business now. Either way it works fine for us.”

Stone also told the board that he anticipates an announcement from the state in the next few days regarding their ban on mask mandates as multiple lawsuits have been filed against the ban. He also mentioned that the current positive cases are coming more from the middle and high schools than the elementaries. Those 12 years and older can receive the free Pfizer BioNTech vaccine at area pharmacies or through their local provider. You can find more information on where to find a vaccine by here.