Fairfield schools report no COVID cases

FAIRFIELD – The Fairfield Community School District has received more good news: it has gone four straight days with no COVID positive tests.

What a difference a month makes. On Jan. 7, the district reported 20 COVID cases, the most of any day this school year. That number fell to less than six a couple weeks later and it's stayed at under six ever since. The district's last positive COVID test occurred on Feb. 1, but it has reported no COVID cases since then.

As of Friday, Feb. 5, eight members of the district (either students, staff or faculty) were absent due to COVID, which means they were having to quarantine or isolate from coming into contact with a COVID-positive person. One month ago, the number of COVID-related absences was 92, and in mid-November it reached a peak of 135.

The drop in COVID cases in the school district mirrors that of Jefferson County, which saw its number of positive cases fall to 93 Friday, from a high of 414 in late November.

With the decline in cases, the district opted to return students to a full week of in-person classes on Feb. 1. It was the first time since last school year that all buildings were doing full in-person instruction as opposed to the hybrid model of half in-person learning and half online classes.