Adams County school COVID-19 numbers remain same; schools not required to report

Published 2:47 pm Thursday, October 1, 2020

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NATCHEZ — The Mississippi State Department of Health is reporting that between one and five students at two different Adams County schools have tested positive for COVID-19 since school began this fall.

That number has not changed in the past couple of weeks and an MSDH spokesperson said schools are not required to report COVID-19 numbers.

“Schools are self-reporting,” said Rebecca Smith, communications office manager for the MSDH. “It is our recommendation that they do self report to us and some are more participatory than others.”

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MSDH’s latest Aggregate School COVID-19 report released Sept. 29 states that Cathedral School had five students quarantined for the week of Sept. 21-25 and one to five students testing positive for COVID-19 since the beginning of school and one to five teachers and staff members testing positive for COVID-19 since the beginning of school.

Also, in the Sept. 29 school report, MSDH reported that one to five students at Frazier elementary school had tested positive for COVID-19 since the beginning of the school year.

Administrators of both Cathedral and Frazier schools were forthcoming with information about the COVID-19 cases occurring in their schools.

According to unconfirmed reports, Adams County Christian School has had at least one student recently test positive for COVID-19 and some teachers quarantined.

ACCS administrator Cricket Daugherty declined to comment on the matter when contacted last week, saying ACCS is only reporting COVID-19 cases to the office of the Midsouth Association of Independent Schools headquarters.

“We don’t give out school-specific data,” said Jack West, director of advancement for the MAIS, in declining to provide on-the-record numbers of COVID-19 cases at ACCS. “As a matter of policy MAIS does not give out specific school information.”

Natchez Democrat reporter Sabrina Robertson contributed to this report.