School case counts remained high in Massachusetts, New Bedford this week; Fall River sees continued decrease

COVID-19 cases among Massachusetts schools continue to remain high relative to previous numbers earlier in the year.

According to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, a total of 1,879 new COVID-19 cases were reported among K-12 students from October 28th to November 3rd. 339 were reported for staff making the overall total in Massachusetts schools for the past week at 2,218.

A total of 1,745 new COVID-19 cases were reported from October 21st to October 27th with 243 reported for staff and 1,502 for students.

Back in March, student numbers were in the 400s with staff cases under 200.

Here are the statistics from some area cities and towns from October 28th to November 3rd.

Acushnet: 6 student and 0 staff
Attleboro: 8 students and 0 staff
Dartmouth: 9 students and 4 staff
Fairhaven: 11 students and 0 staff
Fall River: 6 students and 0 staff
New Bedford: 45 students and 5 staff
Plymouth: 41 students and 5 staff
Seekonk: 5 students and 2 staff
Somerset: 6 students and 0 staff
Swansea: 10 students and 3 staff
Taunton: 26 students and 2 staff
Westport: 8 students and 1 staff

Fall River schools saw yet another drop in cases. Just a month ago the city was near the top in the state in cases.

While New Bedford no longer has the most cases in the state for the week, the city still ranks near the top in student and faculty case counts.

According to DESE, the weekly COVID case reports for October 28th and November 4th were impacted by the weather events and resulting power outages from last week. Many school districts, education collaboratives, and approved special education schools were unable to report positive cases on the normal schedule as a result of the power outages. Therefore, it is possible that some positive cases from the week of October 28th have been included in the report for the week of November 4th.