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Quarantines within Stanly County Schools decreased for the second consecutive week, according to updated data from the district’s COVID-19 online dashboard, though the district did see a slight uptick in new cases.

The system reported 427 quarantines for the week of Nov. 14-20, down from the 438 reported the week prior. Across the 23 schools, there was a fairly even split: 11 reported decreases, 10 reported increases and two stayed the same.

The largest decline came from Badin Elementary, which had 44 students and staff out last week, a 34-person decrease from the previous week. Other notable week-to-week decreases included South Stanly High, which had 23 fewer quarantines than the prior week, and North Stanly High, which had 13 fewer.

South Stanly Middle had 57 students and staff out last week, up from 22 the week prior, representing the largest increase. Other schools that had notable increases included Aquadale Elementary (37, up from 15) and North Stanly Middle (62, up from 44).

There were 32 positive cases identified within the schools, of which 25 were students, up from the 20 reported the previous week. That is the highest total since 32 people were positive for the week of Oct. 10-16.

Aside from Aquadale, which had six positive cases, all of which were students, no other school had more than four. Ten schools had no positive cases identified.

The increase in cases comes as the Stanly County’s percent positive rate has also recently spiked. After falling as low as 5.6 percent in late October, the rate hit 7.4 percent on Tuesday, the highest in several weeks.

New cases have also been on the rise recently, after weeks of decline. The health department reported 30 new cases last week, a 26 percent increase from the previous week’s total of 103.

So far this month, 14 people have died after contracting COVID-19.

With people getting ready to gather with family and friends for the holidays, the Stanly County Health Department encourages people to continue wearing masks when in public, social distancing when possible, washing hands and getting vaccinated.

As of Tuesday, 41 percent of all residents are fully vaccinated and 44 percent have received at least one dose. Those numbers have not significantly changed for many weeks.