‘One of the hardest days’: Multiple deaths from COVID-19 reported Monday in the Detroit school district

The new coronavirus hit the Detroit school district hard Monday with the deaths of multiple people connected to the schools, including two staff members.

“We learned that we lost two DPSCD employees today from two separate schools,” said Superintendent Nikolai Vitti via Twitter, where he noted that the district also lost “three parents from three different schools.”

Vitti said it was “one of the hardest days yet” for the district.

“All to this awful virus. My heart is in pain for their families and our district and school families,” Vitti wrote.

On Sunday, the district updated its web site to announce there were seven additional confirmed cases of coronavirus among staff and parents. That was up from two last week.

It comes as the city has seen a sharp increase in confirmed cases.

Detroit was recently identified by federal health officials as a hotspot of coronavirus spread. As of Monday, there were 1,801 confirmed cases in Detroit, with 52 reported deaths. 

Among the deaths was that of Thomas Fields, the school culture facilitator at Paul Robeson Malcolm X Academy. The school announced his death via Twitter earlier in the day Monday.

“Please pray for his family as well as the students and staff of PRMX,” the school tweeted.