CORINTH, Miss. (WTVA) - The Corinth School District says two more individuals - one at the middle school and one at the elementary school - tested positive for the coronavirus.

Wednesday morning shortly before noon, the school district published the information on its social media platforms.

Corinth students and staff returned to campus more than a week ago on July 27.

Since the start of school, the school district has reported seven total cases. All previous cases were reported at Corinth High School.

In preparation for the return to school, the Corinth School District adopted traditional and virtual schedules for students.

Tuesday afternoon, School Superintendent Edward Childress spoke to the community about the cases. He also answered the question of why the school district decided to go ahead with restarting school.

Childress cited educational needs as the primary reason for the restart.

“To begin that process of reenergizing children to the educational process," he said. "For them to begin to move forward with learning what they need to be in whatever grade they’re in or whatever subject they are in. So that we can prepare them for college or for a career.”

In preparing the return to school, Childress said administrators knew they would eventually have to deal with a student testing positive but did not know when that expectation would occur.

That “inevitable moment” occurred on Friday at Corinth High School. 

Speaking Tuesday afternoon about the five previously reported cases, the superintendent said the cases were not related. He believes the individuals were not exposed to the virus while at school but were exposed to the virus outside a school setting.

Open this link to watch Childress' full statement.

During Tuesday afternoon's briefing with the governor, State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs commended the Corinth School District for the contact tracing work that has been undertaken.

“The Corinth School District has done a fantastic job of planning, which has been very wonderful,” Dobbs said. “I think it could be a real model for looking how do you do things safely and also understand how do you trace these students after an exposure. So, this is a wonderful opportunity for us to work with them and learn for future exposures because without a doubt, we’re gonna have, every day every school that opens is gonna have some child, some teenager with coronavirus walking through the door. Just based on the law of averages, we’re gonna see that.”

Open this link to watch the governor's Tuesday afternoon briefing. Dobbs spoke about Corinth at the 22:30 mark.