The State of Ohio COVID-19 dashboard report for January 20, 2022 shows 32 new student cases and 1 new teacher case in one week at the Bluffton Exempted Village School District. The cumulative number of cases for the 2021-2022 academic year is 66 student and 7 staff cases.

Weekly reports can be accessed under the "Schools" menu of the "Schools and Children" dashboard: https://coronavirus.ohio.gov/wps/portal/gov/covid-19/dashboards/schools-...

The website notes: "Schools are required to report cases to their assigned Local Health Department who then report to the Ohio Department of Health."

ABOUT THE DASHBOARD

Case Counts: Weekly case counts include full-time or part-time students and staff members who have tested positive or been diagnosed with COVID-19. Staff members include teachers, administrators, support staff, and coaches.

Only cases among students or staff that engaged in on-site instruction, activities, or support services are included. Students or staff that were completely remote are not included. Regardless of the student or staff member's primary mode of instruction/work, an individual is classified as "on-site" if there was any interaction with other students or staff during the individual's infectious period. The infectious period is defined as the time from 48 hours before the onset of symptoms (or 48 hours before sample collection of a positive test for asymptomatic individuals) until the time when the individual is isolated.

Reporting Period: Cases are reported by most recent week (new), and cumulative. The most recent week is defined as the previous Monday through Sunday, with updates provided weekly on Thursdays. The first update of this dashboard was on September 17, with data from September 7 to 13. While the reporting system has been in place since September 7, 2020, some schools may have chosen to include cumulative cases from before that date.

Attending / Working in Multiple Schools: In a small number of situations, students or staff may attend school or work in multiple schools, districts or other educational settings (e.g., after-school settings). If an individual is positive and has had on-site interactions across multiple schools or districts during their infectious period, the individual would be counted as a case by multiple schools/districts for this dashboard. No cases are duplicated in the overall case numbers reported daily by ODH, but school cases are counted toward every school that is affected by a case.