COVID-19 cases reported at Cottonwood Creek Elementary, Wasilla Middle School, Iditarod Elementary.

WASILLA — Single positive COVID-19 cases were reported at two local schools early this week.

The Mat-Su Borough School District reported a case at Cottonwood Creek Elementary on Monday and another case at Wasilla Middle School on Tuesday. Cottonwood Creek was open to students on Tuesday, but Wasilla Middle will be closed to students on Wednesday. Students will study via remote education. On Wednesday, MSBSD announced a positive case at Iditarod Elementary, which held in-person instruction on Thursday. There have now been 13 total positives reported in 11 MSBSD schools.

“We found out when school was already in session and so the Health Action Team, the folks that were available just pulled together with public health and so with the information that we had, it seemed the best thing to do was to go ahead and do an early dismissal for that day and close the school building for today and we will connect with public health this afternoon again to find out about their contact tracing,” said MSBSD Public Information Officer Jillian Morrissey.

Cottonwood Creek and Wasilla Middle now join the list of district schools that are currently classified as medium risk. The list also includes Butte Elementary, Palmer High and Wasilla High.

On Tuesday, the Mat-Su Valley matched a single-day high number of cases with 18 newly reported COVID-19 positives. There were 118 new COVID-19 cases reported by the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services Tuesday and another 108 positive cases reported in Alaska on Wednesday with three new cases in Palmer. Alaska has had 8,780 total positive cases of COVID-19 with 7,824 of those among residents.

There are now 640 total cases with 16 total nonresident cases. Of those, 239 remain listed as active cases in the borough. Of those totals, 143 of the 373 total resident cases attributed to Wasilla remain active. Palmer has had 187 resident cases with 72 remaining active.