PHOENIX (August 14, 2020)—Maricopa County Department of Public Health (MCDPH) has launched a dashboard designed to help school officials in Maricopa County determine if their communities are meeting reopening metrics set by the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) and Arizona Department of Education (ADE).
The tool, available at Maricopa.gov/SchoolDashboard, allows school superintendents, principals and other decision-makers to see two weeks’ worth of data on the three metrics set by ADHS and ADE for opening schools:
- Case rate per 100,000 people: A way to standardize and compare the number of cases in specific populations (data available at county, ZIP code and school district levels)
- Percent positivity: A way to tell if there is significant community spread and whether enough testing is available (data available at county, ZIP code and school district levels)
- COVID-like illness: A way to monitor the percent of people who visit participating emergency rooms and hospitals with COVID-19 symptoms before they are tested. This is the first sign that a decrease or increase in COVID-19 community spread is occurring (data available at the county level)
“Maricopa County Public Health’s role is to provide information to school administrators about the spread of COVID in their communities so they can make data-driven decisions to open schools in the safest way possible, and that’s what this dashboard is all about,” said Marcy Flanagan, executive director for MCDPH.
Data used to generate this report are based upon the benchmarks and thresholds for re-opening established by the Arizona Department of Health Services. “This dashboard will allow decision-makers to view their selected area’s overall risk level related to community transmission of COVID-19 and the recommended learning scenario, based on the most recent data,” said Dr. Rebecca Sunenshine, medical director of disease control for MCDPH.
All data will be updated weekly on Thursdays at 4 pm. This dashboard is a supplement to weekly webinars with schools including Q&A sessions, and guidance materials available on the website.