COVID-19 numbers climb in area schools

The COVID-19 pandemic may be in the rear-view mirror for most people, but case counts are rising in some Spokane County school districts.

The area’s biggest district, Spokane Public Schools, reported on Friday that 46 students and staff who had a confirmed case of COVID-19 entered a school building in the previous five school days.

That’s exactly double the case count of 23 reported a week earlier. Those are tiny numbers compared to the 539 the district reported during the height of the omicron surge; however, case counts have now risen three straight weeks after hitting a low on April 7.

And for the first time, the district has more cases than the 28 cases reported on March 11 – just before the statewide mask mandate was lifted.

The highest case count was five at Salk Middle School.

West Valley School District also saw an increase, to 16 positive cases reported Friday in the previous two weeks. Eight of those were at West Valley High School.

The area’s second-largest district, Central Valley, reported on Monday that it had 17 cases in the previous 10 days, up from 16 a week earlier.

As of Monday, Mead had 14 cases in the previous 10 days; that’s unchanged from last week. Cheney reported 12 cases since April 25.

Medical Lake has 8 cases as of Monday, while no other district had more than two.

Coeur d’Alene reported three cases last week and one so far this week.

Here’s a look at local overall numbersThe Spokane Regional Health District reported 114 new COVID-19 cases over the weekend and Monday, and no additional deaths.

There are 18 patients with COVID-19 in Spokane hospitals.

Staff writer Arielle Dreher contributed to this report.

Jim Allen can be reached at (509) 459-5437 or by email at jima@spokesman.com.