Local COVID Cases Continue to Drop

This week's Walla Walla County COVID Activity Report from Feb. 13-26 revealed community transmission rates have further declined allowing the district to remain in the Green Stage of its Safely Reopening Schools plan. High school students return next week for AM/PM hybrid in-person learning.

“It is pretty remarkable how our numbers have dropped so sharply,” said Superintendent Dr. Wade Smith. ”We are now at levels we haven’t seen since spring of last school year -- 85 or so new cases from our 55,000 population, and only a 1.5% positivity rate.”

Dr. Smith reminds everyone to reminds to stay vigilant as health experts say these numbers could fluctuate over the coming weeks or months until more large scale vaccinations can occur.

“Our masking, cleaning, screening and hygiene practices are working in our schools,” said Dr. Smith. "Our students and staff have done a remarkable job in deterring spread between students and staff on campus. As our own public dashboard reveals, we have not identified any onsite COVID spread since the return of students to campus and have not had one staff member contract COVID from their school setting since we started this school year.”

Superintendent Smith and District Health Services Director Amy Ruff continue to advocate daily for comprehensive staff vaccinations. This week the district will begin receiving all of the materials and reagents to begin rolling the voluntary rapid testing of staff and students.