HANCOCK — As the number of active COVID-19 cases strains the local health care system, in-person instruction at Houghton County K-12 schools and Gogebic Community College’s Houghton center will be closed for two weeks starting Monday, the Western Upper Peninsula Health Department announced Thursday.

All classes will move online for the two-week period. K-12 sports games during those two weeks will also be canceled.

In a release Thursday, the WUPHD attributed the move to the rise in cases since the end of August. As of Thursday, Houghton County had 337 cases, up from 66 on Aug. 31.

The numbers are accelerating. More than half — 182 — have come in the past two weeks. In the past week alone, there have been 125 positives.

“This pause allows us to work with the schools and other community partners to review and strengthen mitigation efforts as we move forward with the school year,” WUPHD Health Officer Kate Beer said in a statement. “The goal is to slow the spread so local resources are not overwhelmed.”

The WUPHD made the decision after meeting with all local superintendents, said Copper Country Intermediate School District Superintendent George Stockero. Nearly every local district has had either positive cases or issues with quarantines, he said.

“The local schools don’t make this decision,” he said Thursday. “This is a health department decision. They did consult with us, they asked us questions, and we got to ask them questions about how to best prepare.”

Gogebic Community College announced Friday it was also shutting down in-person classes for two weeks at its Copper Country Center in cooperation with WUPHD, with the exception of some laboratory classes.

“While challenging, we are still able to maintain our primary mission,” GCC President George McNulty said in a release. “We appreciate your patience at this time.”

The health department has linked the start of the rise in cases to the resumption of in-person classes at local universities, particularly Michigan Technological University. While Tech is still contributing a plurality of cases, its share of new COVID-19 cases has been trending downward, while more are traced to the larger community.

The number of active positive and probable cases — designating the number of cases under active investigation – has jumped in recent weeks. Houghton County had 159 such cases as of Thursday, up from 93 two weeks ago, the first time WUPHD reported those cases separately. (The number had fallen as low as 53 on Sept. 14.)

The percentage of positive tests countywide has also risen steadily since late August. According to state data, the seven-day average, which stood at 0.4% on Aug. 31, was at 4.9% as of Tuesday. It had peaked a day earlier at 5.8%.

As of Friday, Michigan Tech had 63 positive cases over the past two weeks, for a 3.95% positive test rate. That includes both surveillance testing — designed to measure community spread — and targeted testing of people with symptoms or physician-referred. Surveillance testing at Tech was at 1.1% over the same period.

“Houghton is the real hotspot right now,” bridgemi.com reported Beer as saying in a Thursday report. “It was [Michigan Technological University], but now we’re seeing community spread. [Students] work here, they shop here; their relationship extends beyond the campus borders.”

In a Sept. 7 WUPHD release, Beer noted that the increase in COVID-19 cases related to Michigan Tech was not unexpected due to the congregate living situations on and near campus.

COVID-19 cases have also been confirmed at several local school districts in Houghton and Baraga counties since school resumed.

No K-12 outbreaks in Houghton County were listed on a state page for school outbreaks, which last updated Monday. Michigan Tech was linked to five ongoing outbreaks involving 35 students, and three new outbreaks involving 10 students.

While the number of COVID-positive people at K-12 schools has been limited, the number of staff who have been required to quarantine after each positive has made it hard to maintain regular teaching in some cases, Stockero said. The substitute teacher shortage that always exists has been exacerbated this year, he said.

“Every year we try to recruit more substitute teachers,” he said. “What made it tougher this year is many of our older retired teachers who would normally sub are not choosing to sub this year because of health concerns.”

Stockero said local districts have done a good job of communicating with each other and parents in an unprecedented situation.

“We’re trying to be as creative as we can, and protective as we can,” he said. “We want to see kids face to face. It was a lot of fun to see kids back in our building. We also want to be cautious and do whatever we can do to have them face to face as much as possible. If the health department thinks it’s best to take a pause so we can have kids in school face to face, we’re here to listen to them.”

Friday, schools began to lay out their plans for online learning. In emails to Houghton Middle School and High School parents, Middle School Principal Julie Filpus and High School Principal Cole Klein announced schedules for live instruction through Google Classroom for the temporarily remote students. Each middle-school and high-school class will have one hour of live instruction throughout the week, with no overlap between middle and high school.

“We feel this is the only way we can maintain some live connections without having teachers overlapping and stressing families with not having enough devices,” they said in the email.

The Houghton schools hope to distribute Chromebooks to parents Monday.

Local districts will remain in contact with the health department throughout the next two weeks, Stockero said.

“We’re hopeful we’ll be back to face to face in two weeks, but it’ll be the health department that dictates whether we are or not,” he said.

Hancock Superintendent Steve Patchin spoke to parents in his school system by email.

“The Western U.P. Health Department is treating this two week period as a ‘temporary pause,'” he said, “to catch us with testing and contact tracing in the area.”

Patchin also said that Beer noted that all K-12 schools in the area have done a fantastic job collaborating with her team to help mitigate the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

As of Friday morning, Hancock Public Schools has four students that have tested positive for the virus. No faculty or staff, however, have tested positive, said Patchin.

The two-week school break from face-to-face instruction “allows us to work with the schools and our other community partners to review and strengthen mitigation efforts as we move forward with the school year,” the release said. “The goal is to slow the spread so that local resources are not overwhelmed.”

Patchin continued, discussing some of what he had already been hearing from concerned parents.

“I know many of you are disappointed in this development,” Patchin said of the school closings. “I assure you my education team is as well. Your students bring our building to life with energy, optimism, exploration, discovery, and so much more.”

The situation needs to be looked at as only a two-week break from face-to-face learning, said Patchin.

“We will still be engaging them through on-line streaming and packets,” he said. “Our high school and middle school teachers learned so much last spring about virtual engagement, which they will be successfully applying in the next two weeks. The other difference from last spring’s distance learning option is that all homework and assignments will receive recorded grades this time in the high school and middle school.”

Barkell Elementary School teachers and staff discovered multiple platforms and on-line resources to engage the young Bulldogs last spring, Patchin said. Over the summer they gained even more tools to enhance that virtual experience. They are ready to keep learning moving forward at a regular pace in this two week pause to face-to-face instruction.

“Keep an eye out for an email coming from me tomorrow regarding pick up of meals,” he added. “Like this summer, each household will be able to pick up seven days worth of breakfast and lunch meals for each child under 18 in your household at no cost to your family. Tentative pick up dates will be each Tuesday starting Sept. 29.”

Patchin displayed the age-old Copper Country Strong attitude in his email closing, expressing confidence in the community.

“Bulldog family, we got this! Our return to face-to-face learning on Monday, Oct. 12, will come in a couple blinks of the eye,” he wrote. “Thanks for your support in keeping your students engaged with our education team over the next two weeks.”