Both the Oxford and Lafayette County School Districts have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in their first weeks of the 2020-21 school year.

Oxford schools resumed on Aug. 24 after delaying the start of their school year by two weeks due to COVID-19 concerns and the surge of cases in Lafayette County late July and into early August.

On Friday, Oxford School District provided their first update by reporting three Oxford High School students had tested positive during their first week. The three positive cases required an additional 22 students to quarantine due to contact tracing.

In a letter to OSD parents, superintendent Brian Harvey said they will provide updated case numbers every Friday on the district’s website. The information can be found at oxfordsd.org/covid19.

Lafayette County’s entire fourth grade class is one week into their two-week quarantine following more positive tests among teachers. The district announced the shut down of in-person instruction for the entire fourth grade on Aug. 23 and will run through Sept. 7.

On Friday, the district reported seven new cases for the week of Aug. 24 through 28. Five of the cases were among students with one at Lafayette Elementary School, two at Lafayette Middle School and two at Lafayette High School.

There were two other positive cases among the staff with one case among faculty and staff at LES and one positive case reported among staff of another department within the school district.

Since school resumed for LCSD on Aug. 3 there have been 16 positive cases reported throughout the district.