On Sept. 16, the Ann Arbor Public School district announced that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) community level has reached “Red/High”. The CDC community level examines the number of COVID-19 cases within a community, conveying how much the community is impacted by the virus. 

The “Red/High” level is the highest of three community levels, reporting a recent growth in the number of COVID-19 cases within the county.  

“It is not unusual for us to have high CDC levels,” school nurse Ann Burdick said. “We went down to medium for a couple days and now we are right back at the high level”.  

Despite the growing number of cases, there are, in fact, more potential cases that are not counted within the CDC data. 

“The number of cases that they report does not cover all the cases within the county,” Burdick said. “The health department gets their case reports only from hospitals. Most of the other cases, including the cases that we report from our school, is not counted” 

Following the CDC guideline on different COVID-19 community levels, the Ann Arbor Public Schools announced that they strongly recommend wearing masks indoors for the safety of all students within the district.  

“It is not that hard to wear a mask,” Burdick said. “It is the time of our lives when we really need to look out for each other. We are all in this together and this is not something that can be solved by one person, one home, one community.” 

Visit the CDC website for further community guidelines regarding the virus:

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/covid-by-county.html