These nine York, Lancaster, Chester county schools added first-time COVID cases
With a growing case count in York, every public school district in the tri-county area now has a reported COVID-19 case in at least half of the schools.
Five area schools appeared for the first time Friday on a South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control list showing coronavirus in schools. Four more schools added their first student or staff cases. DHEC updates the list each Tuesday and Friday.
York Comprehensive High School and York Middle School in the York School District are new to the list. So are Brooklyn Springs and North elementary schools in the Lancaster County School District. Sunset Park Center for Accelerated Studies in the Rock Hill School District also appears.
All five schools show new student cases. DHEC lists each as fewer than five cases, as is health department policy until cases exceed five.
York Intermediate School in York, Oakdale Elementary School in Rock Hill and Pleasant Knoll Elementary School in the Fort Mill School District each added their first student cases. Those schools were only listed previously for staff cases. Clover Middle School in the Clover School District added its first staff case after appearing early in the student column.
DHEC figures differ from data given by the school districts. Lag time, types of cases reported and other factors can lead to varying figures. All six school districts in the three counties have some form of online reporting for coronavirus.
Rock Hill schools
An online dashboard for Rock Hill schools shows 19 (16 student, three staff) new cases this week. There are 138 new student and 22 new staff isolations or quarantines.
This school year there have been 52 student and 29 staff positives. Included are 713 students and 164 staff members in isolation or quarantine. Of 32 district schools, facilities or categories (transportation, operations) listed on the district site, only three are without at least one coronavirus case this year.
The most cases have come, as is common throughout the region, at the high schools. Area high schools typically have more students than elementary or middle schools. Rock Hill shows 12 cases (nine student, three staff). Northwestern shows 11 (10 student, one staff) and South Pointe nine (seven student, two staff).
Fort Mill schools
Fort Mill schools have an online listing that updates on Fridays. It shows 12 student and four staff positives. It also shows 183 student and 33 staff positives.
The Fort Mill listing shows only active cases. The most cases appear at Nation Ford High School (six student, two staff). Gold Hill Elementary School, with two student cases, is the only other district school with multiple cases.
Clover schools
Clover schools show just three active student and two active staff cases. Clover schools, mainly Clover High School, had some of the highest numbers when reporting began statewide in September. Yet schools with high cumulative totals don’t have many ongoing cases.
The district has 90 cases since school began. Clover High has 48 of them (40 student, eight staff). Clover Middle School and Larne Elementary School also have more than 10 total cases each.
Those schools show just three active cases, two at Clover Middle and one at Clover High.
York schools
The York schools online listing shows two active student cases, and one staff. This school year there have been 11 student and seven staff positives.
York Comprehensive High has eight total cases (seven student, one staff) but just one active. No other school has more than three positives this school year.
Lancaster County schools
In Lancaster County, the online dashboard lists weekly totals. They don’t break down by school. It doesn’t sort by student and staff, either.
Last week there were 18 new positive coronavirus cases. There were 283 students and staff quarantined. Countywide disease indicators from DHEC, listed on the school dashboard, all fall in the “high” range.
Chester County schools
The Chester County School District online dashboard shows 21 coronavirus cases since the school year began. There are 12 student and nine staff positives. Lewisville elementary and high schools have the most, at four each.
The district shows just one new case per week the past three weeks, after weeks of three, nine and six cases prior.
DHEC school COVID stats
Statewide there are 2,548 COVID-19 cases in schools. There are 1,791 student and 757 staff cases. Total cases are up by 200 since Tuesday.
The DHEC list shows at least one case in 66 tri-county public schools, or 65% of them. York now has more than half its schools with a case, at 56%. No other area district has a lower percentage. Clover is highest at 90%.
York, Lancaster, Chester total COVID
DHEC daily coronavirus case totals Friday show 43 more confirmed and five probable cases in York County. Lancaster County has 19 confirmed cases, one probable. Chester County has six confirmed cases.
York County has two new deaths reported. Both are elderly residents. One died Oct. 14, the other Oct. 15. York County now has 111 COVID deaths. Lancaster County has 62 and Chester County 30 deaths.
Statewide there were 953 confirmed and 105 probable COVID-19 cases announced Friday. There were 15 confirmed deaths, and a probable one.
During the pandemic there have been almost 273,000 confirmed or probable cases statewide. There have been 3,748 confirmed and 257 probable deaths.
Vaccine distribution, state study
Affinity Health Center director Anita Case said to Rock Hill Economic Development Corporation members during a virtual retreat Friday that her group and other public agencies will partner this month for a statewide prevalence study. It will involve randomly chosen virus and antibody testing for COVID-19.
“It will inform our public health officials and our policy makers as they figure out, what’s next?” Case said.
Affinity is a nonprofit health center with sites in Rock Hill, Fort Mill, York and Clover. It serves more than 7,000 people with medical, mental health, dental, pharmacy and other forms of care. About 60% are low income.
Affinity fielded thousands of phone calls per day when the pandemic began. Affinity started curbside testing in April and mobile testing in May. More than 6,000 free coronavirus tests have been administered since April 6, Case said.
Now her agency is preparing to become a vaccine distribution center once a COVID-19 vaccine is ready.
“We know that there are concerns and fears related to a new vaccine,” Case said Friday. “We also know that people are continuing to die from COVID-19.”
This story was originally published November 6, 2020 at 4:05 PM with the headline "These nine York, Lancaster, Chester county schools added first-time COVID cases."
