BEDFORD, Ohio — The Bedford City School District (BCSD) will move all classes to remote instruction for the rest of this week "because of the rising number of COVID and flu cases throughout the district."
The school district informed students and parents of the change, in part, through a message that currently pops up when you visit the district's website.
While in-person learning will be put on hold, teachers are required to come in to the buildings, and some students will still be permitted on campuses.
"Staff must report and athletics will go on as scheduled," the message reads. "We regret the inconvenience. Please have a safe and festive holiday season."
The break from in-person learning will lead up to Bedford City School District's winter break, which begins on Monday.
Because of this unique situation, students in Bedford will not return to their classrooms until January 3, 2022, at the earliest.
While BCSD is reporting that COVID cases within the district are on the rise, that state of Ohio has seen cases and hospitalizations surging in recent days.
The Ohio Department of Health reported that COVID case numbers would be artificially inflated on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week while a backlog of positive cases dating back to March are added into the state's official case count.
Here's a snapshot of ODH reporting from the past six days:
- CONSECUTIVE DAYS WITH FEWER NEW CASES REPORTED: N/A
- Dec. 10: 7,359 new cases, a decrease of 1,141from Dec. 9
- Dec. 11: 8,072 new cases, an increase of 713
- Dec. 12: 4,972 new cases, a decrease of 3,100
- Dec. 13: 5,618 new cases, an increase of 646
- Dec. 14: 9, 922 new cases, including 1,725 backlogged reports
- Dec. 15: 10,588 new cases, including 850 backlogged reports
- 7-DAY AVERAGE TESTING POSITIVITY RATE: 15.6%
- Still more than triple the CDC's recommended threshold of 5%
- CONFIRMED AND PROBABLE NUMBER OF DEATHS: 27,594
- NUMBER OF HOSPITALIZATIONS: 91,409
- 486 new hospitalizations reported in the last 24 hours
- NUMBER OF PATIENTS CURRENTLY IN HOSPITAL: 4,735
- A decrease of 19 known hospitalizations in the last 24 hours
- NUMBER OF ICU ADMISSIONS: 11,289
- 50 new ICU admissions reported in the last 24 hours
- 50 new ICU admissions reported in the last 24 hours
- NUMBER OF PATIENTS CURRENTLY IN ICU: 1,177
- An increase of 7 known ICU cases in the last 24 hours
For the latest information on COVID-19 cases in Ohio, download the WKYC app and enable push notifications to have alerts sent directly to your smart phone.