WARREN, Mich. (WXYZ) — Students who attend Van Dyke Public Schools won't be in class tomorrow. The district notified parents of the cancellation today, stating too many illnesses were going around and they couldn't safely operate school buildings.
This is coming as the state of Michigan continues to see a rise in COVID, flu, and RSV cases. COVID cases rose by more than 3,000 over the week before, while hospitals have also been dealing with spikes in flu cases and RSV cases.
"Most of my teachers have been out of school," said Amauri Seward, an eighth grader at Lincoln Middle School.
Seward was off to perform in a holiday concert, but he won't be in school tomorrow. In fact, all the halls of Van Dyke schools will be empty Friday.
A memo on the district website reads: "It seems as if there are too many illnesses going around to safely and healthily run our buildings. It's definitely December in Michigan. Please get some rest this weekend and stay safe."
Latoya Gibson had 5 kids go through the Van Dyke School system, Seward being one of them. She says the school district has never closed all buildings because so many people were sick.
"It is definitely a first," said Gibson.
Gibson is happy to report none of her children are sick. They live just a half mile from the middle school.
"I have worried, but they do have masks and hand sanitizers and they are pretty thorough down the street," said Gibson.
The Van Dyke school district sits in Macomb County where community spread is low. Yet, the Martha T. Berry long-term care facility is also dealing with a surge of sick people. 49 of their residents are COVID-positive.
"It is not a surprise to us, nor is flu season or cold season," said Kevin Evans, the Executive Director. "We just found that cCOVID is one more thing we are adding to that list that requires us to pay a little more attention and have good standard precautions."
Evans says half of the residents who tested positive don't even have symptoms. The other half reported feeling mildly sick.
The virus and how we respond to it is changing and leaders, assisted living facilities, and schools are just trying to make the right call.
"It's so much going on after COVID," said Gibson. "Usually it would be the flu, but now there's so much going on that the district had to close down."
The Macomb County Health Department is urging everyone who is eligible for the new bivalent boosters to get up to date with their vaccines. They say this will help mitigate any spikes in cases as we prepare for holiday gatherings.
