Houston-area schools now report more than 5,000 active COVID cases

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Houston-area schools now report more than 5,000 active COVID cases. The new number from our 13 Investigates COVID tracker does not yet include HISD or Cy-Fair ISDs, which both opened for classes today.

There are 5,129 total cases: 3,845 students and 987 staff. It is a 23% increase in cases from the numbers reported on Friday.

Conroe ISD reports 1,361 cases, almost twice what any other school district reports. The case count in CISD is up 27% from Friday, when Superintendent Curtis Null practically begged district parents to send students to school with masks. The district has no mask mandate.

The video featured above is from a previous report.

Health experts have expressed their concern about how contagious the delta variant is as students return to the classroom, which is leaving many parents frustrated with what they say is a lack of safe schooling options.

Conroe ISD recently issued a statement to ABC13 on its plan.

"We are tracking this rise in cases and working closely with our local health entities on monitoring this current wave. We continue to recommend and strongly encourage that all employees, students, and families take all precautions necessary to protect one another and keep our buildings open. Regular hand washing, staying home when sick, and wearing a mask or face covering as appropriate are practices that helped keep our schools open last year. All buildings and classrooms are e-misted daily along with being cleaned in accordance with our standard practices. Prevention of disease transmission in our schools takes all of us working together."