FORTVILLE — Mt. Vernon High School is switching to virtual learning until next week in an effort to reverse a rising trend of COVID-19 cases there.
Maria Bond, director of community relations for the Mt. Vernon Community School Corporation, said the high school went virtual starting Monday, Aug. 30, and will return to in-person on Tuesday, Sept. 7.
“COVID numbers were on an increase, and the high school basically needed a reset so that we can get those numbers trending downward, with the goal to keep our kids in person, in school so that they can have the best learning experience,” Bond said.
The school had 35 COVID-19 cases as of Monday afternoon, according to the school corporation’s online dashboard. That total places it in the orange tier of Mt. Vernon’s health and safety protocols, the second most severe. The high school’s absentee rate due to combined illness of students and staff was 6.71%. At 20%, a school would be in the red tier, and the corporation would consult with the Hancock County Health Department about a possible closure.
The plan is flexible, however, and allows administrators to make judgment calls about switches to virtual learning in less severe tiers when resets are needed, as they did earlier this month when Mt. Vernon Middle School was in the orange category. That school has been virtual since Aug. 23 and is also slated to return to in-person instruction on Sept. 7.
McCordsville Elementary School and Fortville Elementary School remained orange Monday as well, with 11 and 15 cases, respectively; and absentee rates of 3.42% and 5.23%, respectively.
With two cases, Mt. Comfort Elementary School remained blue, the second least severe tier.
The Indiana Department of Health updated school COVID-19 data Monday with numbers through last Friday. Fifteen Hancock County schools added new student cases, three added new teacher cases and five added new staff cases.
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COVID-19 data through early Monday, Aug. 30
Hancock County
- 260 new tests administered (Aug. 20-29)
- 40 new cases (Aug. 29)
- 8.7% seven-day (Aug. 17-23) positivity rate all tests, 8.7% cumulative rate
- 0 new deaths
- 132,109 total tests administered
- 9,784 total cases
- 12.8% seven-day (Aug. 17-23) positivity rate unique individuals, 19.4% cumulative rate
- 154 total deaths
- 40,559 age 12+ fully vaccinated (61% of that population)
Indiana
- 24,454 new tests administered (April 24, 2020-Aug. 29, 2021), 7,942 new individuals tested
- 2,916 new cases (Aug. 29)
- 10.9% seven-day (Aug. 17-23) positivity rate all tests, 8.5% cumulative rate
- 0 new deaths
- 12,243,743 total tests administered
- 855,031 total cases
- 18.3% seven-day (Aug. 17-23) positivity rate unique individuals, 21.9% cumulative rate
- 13,980 total deaths
- 439 total probable deaths
- 48.5% ICU beds in use non-COVID
- 26.9% ICU beds in use COVID
- 24.5% ICU beds available
- 18.4% ventilators in use non-COVID
- 9.6% ventilators in use COVID
- 72% ventilators available
- Hospital census: 2,221 total COVID-19 patients (1,931 confirmed, 290 under investigation)
- Delta variant: 97.6% of samples in August
- Gamma variant: 0.9% of samples in August
- Not variant of concern: 0.9% of samples in August
- Alpha variant: 0.5% of samples in August
- 104 total confirmed cases of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children
- 3,094,764 age 12+ fully vaccinated (52.8% of that population)
- 12,783 breakthrough cases (0.416% of fully vaccinated individuals)
- 322 breakthrough hospitalizations (0.01% of fully vaccinated individuals)
- 93 breakthrough deaths (0.003% of fully vaccinated individuals)
Source: Indiana Department of Health
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