As of Sept. 14, the Auburn School District recorded 67 COVID-19 cases among staff and students less than a week into the school year, which began Sept. 8, according to the district’s COVID-19 dashboard.

The majority of positive cases, 74%, originated off campus, according to the dashboard. This means around 14 cases originated on campus. The relatively small number of cases originating on campus suggests the precautionary measures the district is taking could be working.

Of the 67 positive cases, 17 are staff members and 50 are students, but the district’s COVID-19 data does not distinguish between teachers and other staff.

The school with the most number of positive cases is Auburn Riverside High School with 10 students and one staff member who tested positive for COVID-19. Across the four high schools in the district, there are 16 cases among students and four among staff.

Across all 16 elementary schools in the Auburn School District, there are 23 cases among students and seven among staff. Across the four middle schools in the district, there are 11 cases among students and one among staff.

Auburn is not the only district dealing with COVID-19 outbreaks early in the school year. Federal Way Public Schools recorded over 100 cases among students and staff combined in the last 14 days.

Each district building has a COVID-19 supervisor who is responsible for monitoring safety and health protocol and investigates positive cases.

The district is still working to collect data on vaccinations among staff who must be vaccinated by Oct. 18, said Vicki Alonzo, Auburn School District’s executive director of communications. At this time, there is no official count of unvaccinated or vaccinated staff.

As of Sept. 14, 85% of King County residents ages 12 and up have had at least one COVID-19 vaccine shot, according to the King County COVID-19 dashboard. The COVID-19 vaccine has been proven to massively reduce the risk of hospitalization and death from COVID-19, according to the dashboard.

In King County, people who are not fully vaccinated are seven times more likely to get the virus, 50 times more likely to be hospitalized and 30 times more likely to die from COVID-19, according to the dashboard.

To date, there have been 9,912 COVID-19 cases among children ages 0-9 in King County and 16,291 among people ages 10-19, according to the dashboard.