Chelsea School District Added To Coronavirus Outbreak List

CHELSEA, MI — A new outbreak of the coronavirus has been reported at a school in the Chelsea School District, state health officials reported Monday.

One student and one staff member in the Chelsea School District recently tested positive for the coronavirus, according to information provided by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

The state did not specify which school the two people were from but defined the school as a pre-school or elementary school.

In addition to the outbreak at the Chelsea School District, new outbreaks of the coronavirus were reported at 25 other schools across Michigan on Monday.

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It's important to note that a coronavirus outbreak is different than a case. A COVID-19 outbreak is defined as two or more cases with a link by place and time indicating a shared exposure outside of a household.

The information provided by the state on Monday includes K-12, college and university school name, address, number of cases and if the cases involved staff, students or both. Students or staff exposed to COVID-19 outside the school building and are not thought to have spread the virus in the school due to quarantine or self-isolation are not included in the data.

Many factors, including the lack of ability to conduct effective contact tracing in certain settings, may result in underreporting of outbreaks, MDHHS said. This information does not provide a complete picture of school outbreaks in Michigan and the absence of identified outbreaks in a school does not mean it is not experiencing an outbreak.

Here are the new coronavirus outbreaks reported by the state Monday: