3 Wayne County Schools Added To COVID-19 Outbreak List

WAYNE COUNTY, MI — Three schools in Wayne County have been added to Michigan's growing list of ongoing coronavirus outbreaks, state health officials reported Monday.

Three staff at Communication and Media Arts High School in Detroit, four people at Workman Elementary School and four people at Plymouth High School recently tested positive for the coronavirus, prompting COVID-19 outbreak reports at each respective school, according to data released by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

In all, 55 schools were added to Michigan's list of ongoing coronavirus outbreaks 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.

The new coronavirus outbreaks reported by the state Monday can be viewed here.