LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services announced Monday that it will begin posting data on COVID-19 outbreaks at schools across the state.
The state health department will be sharing outbreak information at K-12 schools, college and universities. Every Monday at 3 p.m., the health department will list the name of the institution and the number of cases, between staff and students.
The data on the outbreaks will be collected from 45 local health departments across Michigan. A COVID-19 outbreak is defined as two or more cases that a linked by place and time, which indicates shared exposure.
“Parents and students should know that if their school is listed, their local health department and school are already investigating. Based on that investigation, people are contacted individually if they were possibly exposed to COVID-19 at school,” said Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, chief medical executive and chief deputy for health. “Michigan schools are working hard to maintain a safe environment while also providing quality education.”
Students and staff who are exposed to COVID-19 outside of the school building and are not believed to have spread the virus in the building will not be included in the data.
The health department said there will likely be under reporting of outbreaks due to "the lack of ability to conduct effective contact tracing in certain settings."
You can see outbreak information at michigan.gov/coroanvirus.
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