Decorah School District releases COVID-19 statistics

Through the first ten days of classes in the Decorah School District, the primary reason a staff person or student has been required to isolate or quarantine is because of an exposure occurring within a family unit or household.

The school district has released statistics for the first two weeks of school which shows 27 students isolating or quarantining because of COVID-19; four staff members isolating or quarantining; one staff member having tested positivie and one student having tested positive.

Isolation separates sick people with a contagious disease from people who are not sick. Quarantine separates and restricts the movement of people who were exposed to a contagious disease to see if they become sick. These people may have been exposed to a disease and do not know it, or they may have the disease but do not show symptoms.

As the nurses and principals work to track and manage the data at the building level each day, Decorah School Superintendent Mark Lane consolidates data each Tuesday and Thursday to see how COVID-19 might be impacting the system.

Winneshiek County's latest 14-day average for positive results from testing has been 10 percent, while absenteeism in the school district due to COVID-19 related reasons has been about 1.5 percent.  Both readings are below the metrics established by Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds as being the time when school districts can ask to switch to entirely on-line teaching.