Here is the delta variant's progression in each Montgomery County school district

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, PA — With the 2021-22 school year just around the corner, the presence of the delta variant in Montgomery County continues to grow. The refusal of the virus to die has left officials at both the local and state level scrambling on how best to handle health safety and policy plans, with Gov. Tom Wolf requesting the state legislature mandate the use of masks last week.

The CDC and Pennsylvania Department of Health both recommend that masks be worn indoors in all schools, regardless of vaccination status. Montgomery County has echoed this guidance. For now, however, the final decision on masking and other mitigation measures is left up to the local districts, each of whom is handling the situation in their own way.

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Some argue this is the wisest course: every district is seeing its own numbers (see full statistics for Montgomery County's school districts below), and understands the dynamics of its community the best. Others retort that the virus does not respect township or school district lines, and more lax measures in one district could have devastating effects for a neighboring district.

In Montgomery County, both the number of new cases and the hospitalization rate have increased locally over the past week, according to the latest statistics.

There are now 100 individuals hospitalized with COVID-19 symptoms in Montgomery County, the highest number since mid-May and the most since vaccines became widely available to the general public.

It's still a far cry from last December's height of more than 500 hospitalized, but it's a trend that has trickled steadily upward ever since early July. And other metrics are also on the rise.

The average positivity rate in the county over the last 14 days sits at 4.67 percent as of Thursday, just shy of the 5 percent threshold which is deemed "concerning" by the CDC. Similarly, not since early May has this number been so high in Montgomery County. The peak came back during the fall surge in late November and early December, at around 11 percent.

Below is a glance at the zip codes of each local school district are faring, in terms of incidence rate per 100,000 residents. A district is in the CDC's "substantial" transmission category if the rate is between 50 and 99, and "high" if 100 or over. "Moderate" transmission is 10 to 49.

In certain school districts which contain portions of multiple municipalities, numbers for each municipality are included.

• Abington: 93.57
• Boyertown: Douglass 38.13, New Hanover 182.01, Upper Frederick 83.71
• Bryn Athyn: 43.69
• Cheltenham: 129.21
• Colonial: 88.24
• Hatboro-Horsham: Hatboro 107.70, Horsham 86.81
• Lower Merion: 71.51
• Lower Moreland: 136.61
• Methacton: Lower Providence 83.28, Worcester 134.95
• Norristown: East Norriton 99.76, Norristown 72.48, West Norriton 101.89
• North Penn: Hatfield Borough 150.06, Hatfield Twp. 90.93, Lansdale 54.29, Montgomery Twp. 61.58, North Wales 92.02, Towamencin 65.67, Upper Gwynedd 44.23
• Perkiomen Valley: Collegeville 38.68, Lower Frederick 61.46, Perkiomen 43.54, Schwenksville 67.43, Skippack 47.11, Trappe 111.64
• Pottsgrove: Lower Pottsgrove 65.90, Upper Pottsgrove 89.54, West Pottsgrove 77.50
• Pottstown: 74.91
• Springfield: 25.46
• Souderton: Franconia 105.60, Lower Salford 84.87, Salford 136.89, Souderton 130.25, Telford 37.65, Upper Salford 89.13
• Spring-Ford: Limerick 105.87, Royersford 41.90, Upper Providence 72.07
• Jenkintown: 22.51
• Upper Dublin: 76.14
• Upper Merion: Bridgeport 174.75, Upper Merion 95.24
• Upper Moreland: 49.69
• Upper Perkiomen: East Greenville 101.42, Green Lane 220.26, Pennsburg 25.76, Red Hill 120.10, Upper Hanover 53.45
• Wissahickon: Ambler 46.24, Lower Gwynedd 147.72, Whitpain 78.15