Rock Hill, Lancaster and Clover announce new COVID cases in schools. Here’s where.
Rock Hill schools announced new COVID-19 and related cases Tuesday, as Clover and Lancaster County cases increased.
The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control released new by school data on Tuesday. York, Lancaster and Chester counties had nine schools report confirmed cases. Each school had fewer than five cases either among students or staff, except Clover High School which had fewer than five in each category.
DHEC doesn’t list an exact number of confirmed cases until it reaches five or more, to protect privacy.
Mount Holly Elementary School in the Rock Hill School District has fewer than five cases among its faculty. Oakdale Elementary School has fewer than five cases among its students.
In Lancaster County there are now fewer than five positive tests among students each at Lancaster High School and Kershaw Elementary School. The Lancaster County School District also ongoing cases at Buford Elementary School and Buford High School, both reported last Friday.
In the Clover School District, Clover High School has fewer than five cases each among students and staff. Crowders Creek Elementary School and Oakridge Middle School each have fewer than five student cases.
Rock Hill COVID dashboard
Separate from the DHEC data, Rock Hill schools have a new dashboard that updates daily to show coronavirus statistics. The district shows positive cases — but also isolations and quarantines — by students and staff members, and by school. The more detailed, daily data is intended to fill in gaps compared to state data released twice weekly.
“What they’re sharing are positive cases,” said Mychal Frost, public information officer for the Rock Hill district. “That’s only scratching the surface of the full picture.”
The data includes only active cases.
As of Tuesday afternoon the district shows two positive tests among students and three positive tests among staff. The student positives come, one each, from Castle Heights Middle School and Rock Hill High School. Those staff positives come from Mount Gallant (2) and Mount Holly (1) elementary schools.
Plans are to update the Rock Hill information by 5 p.m. daily. Frost said the in-depth data wasn’t due to a mandate from community surveying his district -- like others throughout the three counties did this summer in preparation for fall classes.
“Moreso, this is the right thing to do,” he said. “Families, employees, students have anxiety and fears over this pandemic. Being able to provide accurate, real time information is important.”
Districts throughout the area monitor their own COVID-19 statistics as significant swings could lead anywhere, from a return to a full in-person education of a pre-pandemic past to school closures similar to this past spring. If the district has to make changes, the dashboard could be useful to explain why.
“It also provides a window into the decision-making of the district,” Frost said.
More than 17,000 students returned to in-person or virtual school in Rock Hill this fall. At about 6,700 students, the district virtual academy alone is larger than some area districts.
Frost said the information the district provides likely will be a little different from what the state reports, even on days DHEC releases its totals. The changes involve when a case is reported and in what way, such as by a school or doctor’s office. For his district, Frost said the dashboard is the quickest and most accurate way to get figures.
“If we find out a positive test today,” he said, “it’ll show up today.”
In addition to the positive tests, there are 30 students and eight staff in quarantine with another 11 students and six staff members isolated. About half the schools in the district are included in at least one of those categories.
Quarantine cases involve students or staff who may have been exposed to COVID-19 or who have had recent close contact with someone who has the disease.
Isolation cases involve students or staff who show symptoms of COVID-19 or who are haven’t shown symptoms, but have tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus that leads to COVID-19.
York, Lancaster, Chester COVID cases
The new school figures came on a low overall COVID-19 case count day in South Carolina. DHEC announced 339 new confirmed and 10 new probable cases statewide, with five confirmed deaths. The state is now up to almost 124,000 confirmed and 2,100 probable cases, with 2,772 confirmed and 140 probable deaths.
York, Lancaster and Chester counties each saw significant drops compared to recent days and weeks. York County had 25 confirmed and two probable coronavirus cases. Lancaster County had seven and Chester County three cases.
There were no deaths reported Tuesday in the tri-county area.
Stay SC Strong
As schools and businesses continue to reopen from spring coronavirus closures, health department and commerce leaders announced a new Stay SC Strong initiative on Tuesday. It’s a list of best practices for businesses to help contain or prevent coronavirus spread, similar to a prior program specific to restaurants.
“South Carolina’s business community continues to play an important role in protecting their workforce as well as the public who rely on the services and goods they provide,” DHEC public health director Joan Duwve said in a statement. “We hope this new campaign empowers businesses to be united as leaders in the community to keep South Carolinians safe and the state safely open for business.”
This story was originally published September 8, 2020 at 5:14 PM.
