Columbia Public Schools seeing lowest case rate since October
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Columbia Public Schools is encouraged by the most recent COVID-19 data showing the lowest 14-day case rate since October.
As of Thursday, the 14-day case rate was 22.9 per 10,000 people.
CPS Superintendent Peter Stiepleman explained the recent trends in a pre-recorded video since the board meeting was canceled due to weather conditions. He also covered how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's updated guidelines show promise for keeping students in the classroom.
"On February 15th the 14 day rate per 10,000 was 27.5, the lowest since August 20th, we continue to experience a really encouraging trend," he said.
The new guidelines include how the CDC defines in-seat learning and a definition for determining whether a community is a high transmission or low transmission community.
The definition for reopening a school is now a model that includes one day of in-person learning, and a community with high transmission is when case rates sit at 100 cases per 100,000 people in the pervious 7 days, and have a positivity rate above 10 percent.
Stiepleman also explained the progess with vaccinating CPS teachers and staff. So far, 20 percent of CPS teachers who are eligible in Phase 1B Tier 2 of the states vaccination plan have been vaccinated.
This includes school nurses, those who work with medically fragile children, teachers who are 65 or older, and teachers who have underlying health conditions.
However, most of CPS's nearly 3,000 school employees only qualify for the vaccine under Tier 3, which has not been authorized by the state of Missouri to be administered.
In order to end up in a 5-day-a-week, in-person learning model, Stiepleman explained the requirements CPS has to meet.
This includes monitoring the positivity rate to make sure it ends up below 10 percent, looking at hospitalization rates in the community, and vaccinating staff and students.
CPS partners, Boone Hospital, the Boone County Health Department, and other community providers are ready to support a mass vaccination clinic when the time comes.
