According to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, many more children aged 5-18 have tested positive for COVID-19 this school year.

The numbers are six times greater than in 2020.

In fact, there were 1,052 cases reported during the week of Oct. 13-19, 2020. The most recent data reported last week, between Oct. 13-19, showed almost 6,000 positive cases among school-aged children across the state.

Last week, (Oct. 17-23), Panther Valley and Northern Lehigh school districts both reported five COVID-19 cases.

Lehighton reported 8; Jim Thorpe, 11; Pleasant Valley, 16; and Tamaqua, 21 (13 in its Tamaqua Elementary School alone). Palmerton currently has 13 students/staff out of school due to positive tests.

For Schuylkill students, anyway, it may be a bit easier to receive testing in the future.

Schuylkill Intermediate Unit 29 Executive Director, Dr. Greg Koons, said a presentation was given to Schuylkill superintendents by a company called Ginkgo Bioworks earlier this week, which is offering free COVID-19 testing at no cost to K-12 schools across the state.

If case counts within a school building reach a certain point, will any of them completely close, or opt to “go virtual” for a period of time this year, much like last year?

Koons, who meets with Schuylkill superintendents biweekly, hasn’t seen it. But closing a grade level or class, however, is situational.

“There are times when they may close a class or a grade, but I haven’t really heard of anyone closing a whole school (this year),” Koons said.

“I do know that the superintendents and their pandemic coordinators are very careful when they make those decisions. They always go to the data and then they make a determination.”

Koons said for Schuylkill students, instruction isn’t interrupted when a grade or class has been closed due to COVID-19 cases in Schuylkill County. There has been either synchronous or asynchronous virtual-type instruction.

Since Aug. 16, out of 66 Pennsylvania counties, Carbon has reported the 24th most COVID-19 cases among school-aged children, despite being the 39th most populated. Philadelphia is not included in list.

At Monday’s Lehighton Area School Board meeting, Director David Bradley put a motion on the floor to “emulate the Tamaqua (Area School District)” stance on masks and allow for exception forms without a doctor’s signature.” It failed when no other director gave it a second.

At the Lehighton High School, through 34 days, 125 students have already been quarantined in the 2021-22 school year and 30 students have tested positive for COVID-19. That compares to 46 positive tests for all of the 2020-21 school year.

Jim Thorpe, close in proximity, had its pandemic coordinator resign two weeks ago, when the school board determined that students and staff who were in contact with someone with COVID-19, but do not show symptoms themselves, no longer have to be quarantined.

Earlier this month, in neighboring Lehigh County, Northern Lehigh’s school board faced criticism for continuing to comply with the Wolf administration’s K-12 mask mandate - despite the county reporting the eighth-most cases among school-aged children across the commonwealth since Aug. 16.

According to the DOH, Carbon ranks sixth worst in the state regarding incidence rate over the last seven days (per 100,000 residents), while Schuylkill is 21st.