“For Gwinnett County, our 14-day case rate is 381 per 100,000 population, and that is down from 440 from last week,” Arona said. “Our overall positivity sits at 9.3%, which is the moderate level for the first time. That is down from 10.2% last week and 11.8% the previous week to that. 

“And, our ER visits for COVID are also decreasing. So, while that’s really great, the numbers are just numbers, and trends and data and all of that are really important, but these numbers are people and many of you know some of these people. That makes this COVID pandemic very scary to a lot of us.”

Whether Gwinnett’s COVID-19 numbers are at a level where it is safe for children and educators to return to school has been a major topic of debate in the county in recent weeks, and more than 50 people, representing both sides of that debate addressed the school board on the topic Thursday. Parents were given the option over the summer of sending their children back to school or keeping their kids home to do digital learning.

Parents in favor of returning to in-person instruction point to issues with the quality of digital learning and developmental impacts on children as reasons for wanting their children back in school.

“We all want what’s best for the kids of Gwinnett County,” said Kari Sorrels, who has four sons enrolled in the school district and supports in-person instruction. “I know some feel that 100% digital is the only safe option for our schools, but as you know, the CDC stated on July 23, the harm of closed schools on social, emotional and behavioral health, economic wellbeing and academic achievement in both the short- and long-term can be significant.”

Proponents of digital-only learning argue students cannot adequately practice social distancing on school buses or in schools, and that they feel the district does not have an adequate plan for addressing an outbreak in a school.

Terri Stalker, who has three children in the school system, said, “I don’t see how we could possible return to school now as an option with no rapid testing, no contract tracing plans that seem to be well thought out at the state level or the Gwinnett County level while putting our teachers in the terrible position right now, and I must say it is morally bankrupt to return kids as an option at this time.”

As of the day of Arona’s presentation, the Georgia Department of Public Health reported Gwinnett County had a two-week COVID-19 case incidence rate of 343 cases per 100,000 residents as well as an overall total of 22,455 cases since March and an overall incidence rate of 2,312 cases per 100,000 residents since March.

While a positivity rate below 10% is considered moderate, an incidence rate of more than 100 cases per 100,000 residents is still classified as high, according to Arona.

On Friday, those numbers for Gwinnett were a total of 22,786 cases, 302 total deaths, 2,355 total hospitalizations, an overall case incidence rate of 2,346.3 cases per 100,000 residents and a two-week incidence rate of 341 cases per 100,000 residents.

The Georgia Department of Public Health had been reporting two-week new case and death totals for counties, as well as two-week incidence rates and two-week death rates, overall deaths, hospitalizations, overall case totals and overall incidence rates for counties, but it has stopped reporting some of those numbers.

It now only reports two-week incidence rates for counties, overall case totals, hospitalizations, overall deaths and total incidence rates for the entire pandemic.

Arona said mitigation efforts, such as wearing face masks, regularly washing hands, staying home while sick and practicing social distancing are key to containing the pandemic. She compared those efforts to wearing a seat belt while driving a car.

“Every single case of COVID-19 is preventable,” Arona said. “Every singe death of COVID-19 is preventable and each of us need to do all of these mitigation measures to protect ourselves, those around us and those that we love.”

Arona has not directly taken sides in the debate over returning to in-person instruction, but she said having all mitigation efforts recommended by public health officials in place can make schools safe for instruction.

“We cannot miss the opportunity to teach our children about what a pandemic is and show them what they can do personally to stop the spread of this virus,” she said. “Our schools can be a safer place to be in.”

The school board, itself, is split on the issue of students returning to class.

“We are moving in the right direction in this county, which is gratifying, something that we can celebrate, something we should all be encouraged by,” school board member Everton Blair said. “And (yet), we are still in a situation where I believe it is too early to reopen schools for in-person instruction mostly because of two metrics: the moderate and high categories that we have on our positivity rate, which we mentioned earlier, and our overall case rate per 100,000 (residents).”

Fellow board member Steve Knudsen, however, said, “I think the choice needs to reside with parents and, I stressed last month and I’ll stress again tonight that, I appreciate our teachers and I appreciate everything that our administrators can do to protect them and make sure their concerns are handled.”