Active covid-19 infections fell in public school districts this week as students returned after a week at home because of wintry weather.
The state Department of Health reported a total of 429 active cases among students and staffers in public school districts Thursday. Case totals are reported twice each week by the department, and the latest report showed a decrease from the 480 active cases listed in Monday's report.
As recently as mid-January, active cases in public school districts were roughly eight times greater than in the most recent report.
Seven public school districts statewide were listed in the report as having more than 10 cases, a list topped by the Bentonville School District, which had 31 active cases, according to the Health Department data.
The Springdale School District, with 25 active cases, and the Rogers School District, with 24 active cases, were next in terms of active infections, according to the data.
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Those three school districts are all in Northwest Arkansas, and the totals for the Bentonville and Rogers districts were higher than in Monday's report, which listed the Bentonville district as having 28 active cases and the Rogers district with 18. The total was unchanged from Monday for the Springdale School District.
The Little Rock School District on its website reported having seven cases of covid-19 across all schools and virtual education programs since 3 p.m. Monday. The totals reflected data collected through 3 p.m. Thursday.
Statewide, there has been a total of 41,691 cases in public schools since June 15, according to the Health Department.
The latest report also listed 155 active cases at colleges and universities in the state, just down from the 158 active cases listed in Monday's report.
The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville topped all colleges with 33 active cases, followed by Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia with 14 cases and the University of Central Arkansas in Conway with 13 active cases.
Data directly from UA shows a total of 10 newly reported cases over the two-day period of Monday-Tuesday.