More COVID-19 Outbreaks at Oregon Schools

The Oregon Health Authority confirmed 21 new cases of coronavirus at schools this past week. It says the virus infected 10 students, and 11 employees and volunteers. The infections involved people at 25 schools offering in-person learning.

The largest outbreak’s at a private school in Bend, where three students and four staff members tested positive.

A small number of public schools and a lot of private schools in Oregon have offered some form of in-person learning since the summer. In the first week of October, more than 500 of them did.  They brought in about 46,000 of Oregon’s more than 600,000 K-12 students.

The state has looser guidelines for small, rural schools and student groups with special needs for in-person instruction.