Home / Featured / Houghton County Schools to Suspend Face-to-Face Instruction
Frank A. Douglass Insurance Agency

Houghton County Schools to Suspend Face-to-Face Instruction

Because of increasing COVID-19 cases, all Houghton County schools will move exclusively to online instruction for two weeks, beginning Monday.

While it’s trueCOVID-19 cases have been confirmed or suspected among students and staff in a number of districts, including Hancock, Houghton, Lake Linden-Hubbell, Adams Township, and Chassell, that is not the main reason for the shut down.

Health Officer for the Western Upper Peninsula Health Department Kate Beer.

“Right now we’re seeing a sustained increase in the number of cases that are coming through as positive and we’re also seeing an increase in probable cases, in addition to that, more of the cases are reporting symptoms then were previously reporting symptoms so all of that combined with the increase in testing that’s being done we’re very concerned that the local health care and public health capacity could be overwhelmed rather easily. So we would rather take a pause with the schools to prevent any further outbreak so we can get ahead of all this.”

Beer also advised athletic events scheduled for tomorrow and through the weekend be cancelled, but said that the decision lies within each district. 

Students should report to school as usual today.

The in-person learning suspension will begin Monday, with students scheduled to return October 12th, although Beer also noted the October 12th return date, was subject to the latest data.

To date, Houghton County now has 337 confirmed cases.

Links to The Western Upper Peninsula Health Department and Michigan’s COVID-19 page are here and here.

Check Also

Northern Michigan University will oversee a $2.5 Million research grant addressing poverty and opioid use disorder

Northern Michigan University will oversee a 2.5 million dollar grant program to address addiction, employment, …