“Although sports and outdoor activities are an important part of a child’s education, nothing is more important than their health and safety,” according to a news release announcing the decision.

The scheduling changes follow recommendations by the Kalamazoo County Health Department and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. The county and state health departments stopped short of declaring a public health emergency, instead offering strong language on the recommendations, said Penny Born, manager of the personal health division at the county health department.

“We don’t want to pull that card as a government body; we really want to be an adviser,” Born said.

The extremely rare disease has spiked this year in Michigan’s southwest corner, and not only in humans. It’s also becoming “widespread” in animals, including horses and white tail deer, according to Kalamazoo County public health officials.

State health officials have confirmed one human case each in Cass, Calhoun, Berrien, Van Buren and Barry counties and three cases in Kalamazoo County. Three of those people have died.

Previously, just seven cases had been reported in Michigan in a ten-year period ending in 2018.

Three states had reported more human cases: Florida with 13 cases, Massachusetts with ten cases, and New York with eight cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Across the United States, 72 human cases have been confirmed, and only Florida, Massachusetts and New York have reported more cases than Michigan this year, reporting 13, 10 and 8 respectively, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As of Friday evening, EEE had been confirmed in 21 animals from 11 counties: Barry, Berrien, Calhoun, Cass, Genesee, Jackson, Kalamazoo, Lapeer, Montcalm, St. Joseph, and Van Buren. There is an EEE vaccine available for horses, but not for people. Additional animal cases are under investigation.

Just six human cases were reported in the country all of last year, and five in 2017.