School infections continue to rise

The Madison County School District is reporting a large number of quarantined students within the last week in schools that had been lightly impacted by COVID-19 since schools started in-person classes in September.

Madison Avenue Upper Elementary School had 64 students quarantined the week of Nov. 16-20, according to a new report released by the Mississippi State Department of Health on Tuesday. 

Madison Avenue Upper Elementary School has only reported 1-5 positive cases of the virus to date.

Madison Central High School, which has nine confirmed cases amongst students and 10 amongst faculty and staff had 44 students quarantined last week, too.

Madison Middle School along with Germantown High School both last week transitioned to virtual learning after spikes were attributed to off-campus social gatherings.

Madison Middle School has 22 confirmed cases amongst students and nine amongst faculty and staff. Last week, the school reported 133 students in quarantine. 

Germantown High School has 34 confirmed cases of the virus. Germantown Middle School, which has 15 confirmed cases amongst students, had 32 students in quarantine last week.

Madison-Ridgeland Academy leads the schools in the county with 36 confirmed cases of the virus. Last week, they had 25 students quarantined. 

Velma Jackson High School, St. Anthony Catholic School, Madison Avenue Elementary, and Ann Smith Elementary are the only schools that have had zero cases to date, according to MSDH.

In Madison County, 4,633 total cases have been identified, up over 200 from the week before. There have been 105 deaths here attributed to the virus, up six from last week.

Madison County came out from under a mandatory COVID-19 mask order two weeks ago but last week was immediately put back under one by Gov. Tate Reeves until Dec. 11.