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Kingston Public Schools pause sports due to COVID-19 concerns -
The above graphics represent an Epi Curve of COVID-19 cases by Oklahoma State Health Department (OSHD) districts. The OSDH uses the date of the onset of symptoms to organize the information. The department also provides a daily update of coronavirus cases through its website https://coronavirus.health.ok.gov. Oklahoma State Health Department
Uncertainties surrounding the coronavirus has interrupted sports again in Marshall County.
This time it came via a social media post Sunday night by Kingston Public Schools.
The district announced it was shutting down all student activities including athletics through until July 6 due to an increase in COVID-19 activity in the community.
KPS athletic director Taylor Wiebner said he began receiving reports Sunday night that some Kingston athletes may have been exposed to the virus.
“The first I heard about it was Sunday night,” he said. “Some reports came in a couple days ago to different coaches. This has nothing to do with summer pride specifically, but we heard reports of a couple cases that may have been in contact with our kids.”
Wiebner said he spoke with superintendent Brian Brister, high school principal Jon Holmes and coaches Sunday before making the decision to halt activities.
“With some of the reports we were getting, we wanted to err on the side of caution,” Wiebner said. “I think Dickson [Public Schools] had a few test positive so it made sense to shut back down for a while.”
Calls to Dickson Public Schools administrators and coaches were not returned by press time.
Mendy Spohn, the regional administrative director for District 8, said the state health department and its local offices cannot comment on the specifics of school closurse as that is the school’s own decision.
“We are seeing some cases in the disctrict connected to summer sports programs, but mainly our cases are associated with worksites and family interactions,” Spohn said.
Wiebner added that KPS administration is not aware of any of our athletes testing positive.
“I haven’t talked to any parents yet,” he said. “We’re gonna do what is safest for our kids.”
A rise in cases
The Texoma region has seen an uptick in cases over the past two weeks.
As of June 16, Marshall County has 20 positive COVID-19 cases.
Counties bordering Marshall County have also seen an uptick with Carter County showing 60 cases and Bryan County showing 48 cases. Both Love and Johnston Counties have also seen an increase to 26 and five cases respectively.
Carter, Johnston, Love and Marshall Counties are part District 8 of the Oklahoma State Health Department along with Garvin, Jefferson, Murray, Pontotoc, and Stephens Counties.
Meanwhile, OSDH District 9 covers Atoka, Bryan, Choctaw, Coal, Latimer, LeFlore, McCurtain, Pittsburg, and Pushmataha Counties.
Graphs provided by OSDH show upward case trends in both districts.
On top of the increase in Oklahoma cases, larger spikes in positive COVID-19 cases have come on the Texas side of Texoma.
The Lone Star State has seen 1,254 new cases as of June 16 according to the Texas Health and Human Services website.
Grayson (Sherman/Denison), Colin, Denton and Dallas Counties are among those with increased cases in North Texas. An article released June 15 by D Magazine showed that, “as of June 11, the DFW area had 705 hospitalizations due to COVID-19, up from 521 on Memorial day, a gain of 35 percent.”
While there is no way to know how many of these cases are linked to the spike seen in the DFW area, each postive case identified in Oklahoma is researched.
This research is done by local county health officials such as those with Spohn’s office with the Carter County Health Department or the Marshall County Health Department.