Houston-area schools have more than 11,500 active COVID-19 cases

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Houston-area school districts still have more than 11,500 COVID-19 cases among staff and students, as the number dipped for the first time this year.

The cause for the decrease can't be determined, as some districts went to remote learning or shut down classes entirely ahead of the Labor Day holiday weekend.

Conroe ISD, which had the most cases in our region for a long time, shows cases are significantly down from last week (947 cases compared to 1,689 last Tuesday).

Sweeny and Tomball ISD have some of the highest numbers of cases per student enrollment. Sweeny has 38.8 cases per 1,000 students and Tomball has 37.1 per 1,000 students.

13 Investigates is tracking COVID-19 cases at dozens of districts across the Houston area and found last week that schools without mask mandates are seeing two times the number of cases as districts with mask mandates.

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The data comes from COVID dashboards from 33 Houston-area school districts.

The video featured above is from a previous report.

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Houston's six previous pediatric deaths all had underlying health conditions. The child or teen, who was not vaccinated, died in late July.