(Rutherford County, TN) There is some misinformation circulating our community about the current number of COVID-19 cases within our local schools. To find out where COVID numbers stand today we went directly to the local school districts.

WGNS spoke to James Evans, the Communications Director for the Rutherford County Schools about the current status of active COVID cases and he confirmed that numbers are low. Evans stated, “Last week, we had 14 student cases and 10 staff cases reported, districtwide.”

When boiling down the numbers to percentages in the county school system, out of 50-thousand students, the percent of students with COVID remains extremely low at 0.00028%. Out of the 6-thousand employees, only 0.0016% are sick with COVID.   

In the Murfreesboro City Schools, the active COVID numbers are equally low. Director of Communications Lisa Trail said information sent to WGNS about COVID concerns being high was incorrect.

Throughout the entire Rutherford County population, the number of those with COVID-19 is rated as “Low,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In fact, there has been a drop in cases over the past two weeks and the weekly case count per every 100-thousand resident’s is at 72.23.

Neighboring Davidson and Williamson Counties are seeing a slightly larger problem where the COVID-19 levels are rated as “Medium.” However, all other neighboring counties (Marshall, Bedford, Coffee, Cannon and Wilson Counties) are ranked as having “Low” levels of COVID.

About 100-miles West of Murfreesboro, Humphreys County is ranked as having “High” COVID numbers. 245-Miles East of Murfreesboro, Greene and Cocke Counties are also seeing “High” COVID-19 numbers, according to the CDC.