Illness sweeps school districts

GRANT COUNTY — The Grant County Health District reported Friday absenteeism rates remain above normal at some schools in the county.

In Grand Coulee Dam, 31.4 percent of students were absent on Thursday due to illness. In Wilson Creek, 18.4 percent were absent. The absenteeism rates in Moses Lake were above normal, with 11.9 percent out of school.

Health District Administrator Peggy Grigg said Wright Elementary School in Grand Coulee Dam had the most students absent Thursday at 44.1 percent. Activities in the schools requiring groups of people were canceled, Grigg said.

"About a third of the people were reporting some stomach-related symptoms," she said.

Some experience influenza-like symptoms such as a fever, chills, headache or respiratory illness.

Other school districts in Grant County, including Ephrata, Quincy and Mattawa, had absenteeism rates less than 10 percent, she said. The health district asks schools to report rates above 10 percent.

"The public is advised that anyone with a stomach ache, nausea, diarrhea, headache, sore throat, cough or earache with or without fever should be kept home until all signs of illness are gone," Grigg said.