The state Department of Education saw a sharp increase in COVID-19 cases reported by schools and offices over the last seven days, a period that featured the start of the new school year.

Schools and complex areas reported a total of 105 confirmed cases between July 31 and Aug. 6 — up from 23 cases the week before.

State Health Director Dr. Libby Char on Monday predicted there would be a surge in school cases, saying that it was inevitable when you bring so many students and school employees together across the state.

Tuesday was the official first day of the new school year for most of the department’s 163,000 students, although many students didn’t report to campus until later in the week.

Despite a significant spike in cases in the last few weeks, officials said they were confident they could keep transmission low as the statewide public school system emphasized in-person learning.

Officials said that excluding cases where the infected individual was neither on campus nor whose case required any disinfection of school facilities, there were just seven student cases — three at elementary schools and four at secondary schools — and 20 school staff cases.

What’s more, there has been no evidence of transmission on campuses this week, they said.

“I commend our schools for working diligently to minimize exposure and prevent the spread of COVID in our schools as we welcomed students back for in-person learning,” Interim Superintendent Keith Hayashi said in a news release.

He urged to community to enforce the core strategies, including promoting vaccinations for all who are eligible, washing hands, wearing face masks and staying home when sick.

At a news conference Monday, Char also urged community support in keeping the schools safe.

“The idea of getting 180,000 people together, statistically, will end up with some cases,” Char said. “What we’ve seen thus far with regards to cases in the education setting is typically someone gets infected at home and then they come to school and have symptoms. That’s why it’s so important to have mitigation strategies in place — layer upon layer of safety — so that when that happens, we can address it very quickly to avoid wide spread at that school.”

The state Legislature passed a law this year requiring the DOE to post COVID-19 cases on its website.

This week’s case report is available at http://bit.ly/hidoe-covid-updates