At least 548 COVID-19 cases were identified early this week as public school students throughout St. Lawrence County administered home tests issued to their parents.

The initiative was aimed at reducing spread of the Omnicron variant which has led to more than 2,000 active COVID-19 cases in the county and claimed two lives in the past week.

County Public Health Director Jolene Munger called the initiative a success as it prevented 548 students from spreading COVID-19 to others at school. The positive tests included all reported home results as well as lab results from Jan. 7 through mid-day Tuesday, Jan. 11 and includes teachers, faculty and students throughout the 18 county school districts.

“The schools choose to do this as part of a screening service. It allowed us to identify them and remove them from the schools,” Munger said, adding that the districts have been wonderful partners throughout the pandemic.

Rapid tests kits were distributed

County schools asked parents to test their children Monday morning prior to sending them to school with rapid tests supplied by the state.

The tests were supplied as part of the governor’s initiative to keep kids in classrooms as COVID-19 continues to spread throughout the community.

“It’s a little hard to give a precise number. Sometimes we are notified of a positive case but we aren’t told if the case was detected as a result of the test we sent home with students or if they were tested somewhere else. Since Friday night we have been notified of 40 new student cases and 10 staff,” said Potsdam Central School Superintendent Joann Chambers.

As of Monday, the Massena Central School District had 31 students test positive over the weekend and Monday morning with the at home tests. These cases are in addition to the 65 students who were already in isolation for testing positive for COVID-19. Students in quarantine are more than 200, noted School Superintendent Patrick Brady.

In the schools

As of Jan. 10 - per schoolcovidreportcard.health.ny.gov/#/searchResults, there have been nearly 3,000 positive tests reported in districts this school year.

The data for each district follows

Canton Central School

• FS Banford Elementary: 15 students, 0 teachers, 1 staff, 16 total

• JM McKenney Middle: 26 students, 2 teachers, 0 staff, 28 total

• HC Williams High: 16 students, 1 teachers, 4 staff, 21 total

• All campuses: 57 students total, 3 teachers, 5 staff, 65 total

Massena Central School

• J William Leary Junior High: 11 positive students, 0 teachers, 1 staff, 12 total

• Jefferson: 4 students, 0 teachers, 3 staff, 7 total

• Madison: 1 students, 0 teachers, 0 staff, 1 total

• Massena Senior High: 22 students, 2 teachers, 6 staff, 30 total

Nightengale: 9 students, 1 teacher• s, 0 staff, 10 total

• All campuses: 47, total teachers: 3, total staff: 10, total: 60

Ogdensburg City Schools

John F. Kennedy School: 5 students, 3 teachers, 1 staff, 9 total

Madill School: 1 students, 4 teachers, 4 staff, 9 total

OFA: 12 students, 1 teachers, 5 staff, 18 total

All campuses: 18 students, 8 teachers, 10 staff, 36 total

Potsdam Central School

Lawrence Ave. Elementary: 12 students, 2 teachers, 8 staff, 22 total

AA Kingston Middle: 8 students, 1 teachers, 4 staff, 13 total

Potsdam Senior HS: 25 students, 1 teachers, 4 staff, 30 total

All campuses: 45 students, 4 teachers, 16 staff, 65 total

Other districts

• Brasher Falls CSD: 26 students, 6 teachers, 1 staff, 33 total

• Clifton-Fine: 1 students, 1 teachers, 0 staff, 2 total

• Colton: 20 students, 2 teachers, 0 staff, 22 total

• Edwards: 34 students, 2 teachers, 7 staff, 43 total

• Gouverneur: 48 students, 8 teachers, 15 staff, 71 total

• Hammond: 8 students, 0 teachers, 0 staff, 8 total

• Hermon-Dekalb: 4 students, 1 teachers, 1 staff, 6 total

• Heuvelton: 10 students, 4 teachers, 0 staff, 14 total

• Lisbon: 14 students, 2 teachers, 0 staff, 16 total

• MW CSD: 34 students, 9 teachers, 0 staff, 43 total

• Morristown: 2 students, 1 teachers, 0 staff, 3 total

• NN CSD: 40 students, 4 teachers, 2 staff, 46 total

• Parishville: 8 students, 3 teachers, 3 staff, 14 total

Around the County

The New Years holiday weekend ignited an alarming upward trend in confirmed COVID-19 cases and within a week a huge spike in hospitalizations.

The weekend of Jan. 1-3 saw 315 new cases, sparking a string of single-day record cases through Jan. 11. There are now 27 hospitalizations reported.

From Jan. 4-11, 2,267 new COVID cases surfaced with 2,036 still active cases with more than 500,000 COVID test performed.

In his report to St. Lawrence County legislators on Jan. 3, Board of Health President Dr. Andrew Williams predicted the rapid climb in positive cases.

“If you look at a particular county that has Omicron, what you see is this just (an) absolute rocketing number of cases. So it’s the same as we’re seeing nationally but we’re seeing that in the counties in New York State where Omicron is clearly dominant,” Williams said.

The numbers speak for themselves:

Jan. 4: 250 new cases; 18 hospitalizations

• Jan. 5: 234 new cases; 16 hospitalizations

• Jan 6: 268 new cases; 19 hospitalizations

• Jan. 7: 278 new cases; 21 hospitalizations

• Jan. 8-10: 883 new cases; 31 hospitalizations

• Jan. 11: 355 new cases; 27 hospitalizations

The surge in COVID-19 cases prompted Gov. Kathy Hochul to open test sites at SUNY Potsdam and SUNY Canton beginning Tuesday, Jan. 11. The sites will be open and provide appointment-based and walk-in COVID testing Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The SUNY Potsdam is be in Merritt Hall, near Lot #6, 44 Pierrepont Ave. For reservations visit https://bit.ly/3qhYzjL

The SUNY Canton is in Dana Hall, 34 Cornell Drive. For reservations, visit https://bit.ly/3r7Skyq