OXFORD HILLS — Despite being part of Maine Department of Education’s county-wide yellow designation, SAD 17 continues to maintain safe spaces within its schools.

As of Dec. 15, the district website lists 12 students or staff having confirmed cases of COVID-19. None of those cases have been detected as spreading within the schools themselves.

One school, Paris Elementary, is currently closed and fully remote because there are not enough available educators and staff to support in person learning.

Overall, the number of students and staff in quarantine is 80, up slightly from last week, but still significantly lower than one month ago, when Guy E. Rowe School in Norway was struggling to contain an outbreak, Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School had to close due to infections and Oxford Elementary School closed because of a teacher shortage.

Currently, Waterford, Hebron and West Paris all report between 6-19 cumulative cases. Harrison in Cumberland County is at 22 and Norway 37. South Paris reports 50 cases and Oxford 55. Buckfield shows 17 cases of the virus.

Oxford County has seen 229 new cases since Dec. 5 in, a 49% increase from the eight month period between between Mar. 11 and Dec. 7. Over the last week the county has added an average of 27 new cases daily. The cumulative number of cases is 693.

Oxford County has seen a total of 693 cases of COVID-19 since March, with 229 being reported since Dec. 5. Supplied photo

Comments are not available on this story.