Covid-19 cases in public schools increased by about 9% over a three-day period, ending a trend over the past several days of mostly declining case totals, according to state Department of Health data released Thursday.
Totals for active cases among public school students and staff jumped to 2,977 from the 2,723 cases reported Monday. The state Department of Health releases data on infections at educational institutions on Mondays and Thursdays, generally.
Statewide, cases increased early this month after students returned from their winter breaks, rising to a high of 3,425 as of Jan. 14. But cases then began to decline.
School districts throughout the month have continued to make adjustments to instruction because of covid-19 cases and associated quarantines.
Rick Gales, superintendent of the Stuttgart School District, cited a "sharp increase in covid-19 cases among our students and staff" in a letter Thursday announcing that the district is switching to virtual instruction for todayand Monday.
The school district, about 45 miles southeast of Little Rock, enrolls 1,549 students, according to state data. The district on Thursday reported having 18 active cases of covid-19 among on-site students and six among staff.
Totals reported by individual schools have often differed from data in state Department of Health reports, which on Thursday listed a total of 21 active cases for the district, up from 15 as tallied in a Health Department report released Monday.
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Two days of virtual instruction "will provide time for our nurses to complete all contact tracing" and allow for more cleaning, Gales said in the letter addressed to "Ricebird Family."
The five school districts listed Thursday in the Health Department report as having the most active covid-19 cases all saw rising case numbers compared with Monday.
Cases increased in the Springdale School District to 137, up from 116; Rogers School District cases went up to 133 from 112; and Little Rock School District cases rose to 118 from 105. Cases increased in the Fort Smith School District to 117 from 92, and also in the Bentonville School District, which had cases increase to 113 from 91, according to Health Department data.
The Little Rock School District reported seven new cases of covid-19 among students and staff throughout the district during a 24-hour period that began at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, including two new cases among students in a virtual education program. The district also announced a shift to virtual instruction for its Parkview High School through today.
The Health Department report Thursday listed a slight uptick in cases on the state's college campuses. Total active cases among college students and staff increased to 589 from 569 three days earlier.
The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville topped all colleges with 116 active covid-19 cases, followed by Ouachita Baptist University, located in Arkadelphia, with 42 active cases and the University of Central Arkansas, located in Conway, with 41 active cases and
Separately, the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement reported Thursday that 128 school districts as of Monday had had 50 or more new coronavirus infections per 10,000 residents over the previous 14 days. This is more than 50% of the 235 geographic school districts included in the center's analysis.
A week earlier, the center had reported 175 districts having such elevated levels of new infections.