Several Area School Districts See COVID-19 Jump

Several Arkansas School Districts are dealing with an increasing number of COVID-19 Infections.

In a single week, the number of Arkansas public school districts with COVID-19 infection rates of 50 or more new known infections per 10,000 district residents over a 14-day period has seen a nearly five-fold increase, going from 28 last week to 138 this week. 

The announcement came Wednesday from the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement (ACHI), citing its analysis of Arkansas Department of Health data current as of Monday. Among those school districts on the list in North West Arkansas include Eureka Springs, Jasper, Omaha, Ozark Mountain, and Searcy County. 

The classification of a district is based on infections among community residents living within the geographical boundaries of each school district and not on cases among school employees and students.

The week to week increase is the largest recorded during the pandemic in monitoring school districts.