How COVID cases may rise as classes begin

JONESBORO, Ark. (KAIT) - Keeping your kids safe as the new school year begins.

With kids being back in the classroom there is the chance for a familiar virus to infect more students.

Dr. Shane Speights with NYIT says as kids go back to school most parents can expect to see COVID numbers rise.

He said it’s important for parents to know this is part of the normal highs and lows of the virus.

“When we look back at COVID, specifically the last two years we have seen in the winter months, particularly in the summer it went up,” said Speights. “It went down after that and came back up around the November January time frame.”

He stressed that in schools where kids are in close contact at things like recess, or even just in the lunchroom, it’s easy for any type of disease to spread.

“Once you bring groups of people together, especially kids together, you can expect diseases like this to be passed back and forth,” said Speights.

Similar to last year, Speights said there is also the chance we see a new variant in the winter, saying this is a virus that is always evolving.

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