It’s no secret that COVID cases here at McIntosh are on the rise. More and more students are being quarantined and some students have tested positive for COVID. The question has been raised of whether or not the current protocol of Fayette County Schools being on green is the most practical and the safest option for the safety of staff and students.

According to the Fayette County School Board’s COVID-19 protocol published at the beginning of the school year, the total percentage of new student and staff cases out of the total population must stay between 0 and .25% for the school to remain on the green status. According to the most recent COVID-19 graphic on the school board website, the percentage right now is .002%.

While the percentage indicated by this report states that schools are okay to stay on the green schedule, there are several other factors that the school board takes into consideration before making a final decision. Other factors include the total number of cases in the community. The protocol states that the number of cases per 100,000 people in the Fayette County community have to be between 0-10 cases. However, according to usafacts.org, there are only 19 new cases that have been added to a cumulative number of 2,574 and the population for Fayette County is 115,119 people according to the 2020 United States census data.

Based on the numbers, it is still safe for Fayette County schools to remain on the green schedule. However, the COVID-19 data report for the county is updated weekly; it is safe to say that by Friday, students in Fayette County schools could be looking at a different outcome.