SAN ANTONIO – The Texas Dept. of State Health Services and the Texas Education Agency released its first set of numbers Thursday for confirmed COVID-19 cases in public schools across the state.
According to the state health department, there were 2,344 reported on-campus student cases of COVID-19 out of an estimated 1.1 million students who have been on campus for instruction or activities since the beginning of the 2020-21 school year.
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The total count of on-campus staff cases during the same period is 2,175 confirmed cases out of just over 800,000.
Cases were counted from Aug. 9 to Sept. 6. Positive cases have gradually increased as more students have returned to classrooms. The full data from the TEA can be found here.
The DSHS said this week’s report is statewide and cases will be reported on the district level starting next week. It will be updated every Wednesday.
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Last month, the TEA and state health department collaborated to create a new system to monitor and report confirmed cases across Texas.
School systems started to report confirmed cases to state health officials this month.
Districts are required to notify the state health department any time there is a positive case in a campus community.
Bexar County public school districts started to allow students to return to campus in phases.
Area students outside Bexar County have been allowed to return for in-class instruction since August.
The San Antonio Metro Health Department initially required Bexar County school districts to report positive cases on the districts’ websites.
Metro Health is still requiring districts to report positive cases, but is no longer requiring districts to post case totals after the agreement by TEA and the state health department.