This York County school has the most COVID cases in SC. But numbers still are low.
New data on South Carolina schools released Friday shows one local school with twice the COVID-19 cases among students compared to any other public school.
Clover High School now shows nine positive cases among students. No other public school statewide shows more than four. Clover also has five or fewer cases among staff members.
The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control lists cases as fewer than five until they reach that number to protect the identity of people who test positive. Clover High is the only school to show an actual number, either for student or staff positive cases.
Of note, Clover High is one of the largest schools in the state. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and splits into in-person and virtual school models, Clover High had more than 2,400 students. It’s the only high school in its district.
Clover High is among six Clover School District schools with positive cases. Clover and Oakridge middle schools have fewer than five student cases, as do Crowders Creek and Larne elementary schools. Oakridge Elementary School has fewer than five staff cases.
The Lancaster County School District has five sites with fewer than five cases among either students or staff. Indian Land and Lancaster high schools, along with Kershaw Elementary School, reported those cases. Buford elementary and high schools have staff cases.
The Chester County School District shows fewer than five student cases only at The Learning Center. The York School District remains the only one in the area with no reported cases.
Fort Mill cases
A week ago, the Fort Mill School District reported its first seven — four students, three staff — positive cases. On Friday afternoon the district still listed those same positives, one student each at all three high schools and one student at Fort Mill Elementary School. The staff positives come from Banks Trail and Gold Hill middle schools, and district transportation.
Fort Mill and Rock Hill each have their own COVID-19 dashboards that list not only positive cases by school, but students and staff in quarantine. The Rock Hill page also lists cases in isolation. The Fort Mill site updates each Friday, while the Rock Hill one updates daily.
The Fort Mill page Friday afternoon shows 39 students and 16 students in quarantine.
DHEC data for the Fort Mill district only shows fewer than five student cases each at Doby’s Bridge and Fort Mill elementary schools, and Fort Mill High School. It shows fewer than five staff cases at Pleasant Knoll Elementary School.
Rock Hill cases
The Rock Hill School District lists 13 positive tests, seven students and six staff. The positive student tests come from at Northwestern (two) and Rock Hill high schools, Castle Heights and Sullivan middle schools and India Hook and Rosewood elementary schools. Staff positives come from the Flexible Learning Center and Mount Gallant Elementary School (two each), Rock Hill High School and Mount Holly Elementary School.
The Rock Hill district lists 130 students in either isolation or quarantine across the district. There are 35 such staff members.
None of the figures yet approach 1% of the school populations for those categories. Positive student tests, for example, make up just .07% of the in-person student population of more than 10,000.
The DHEC data, which is cumulative, differs from the real-time data Rock Hill displays which will drop cases as they leave quarantine. The DHEC data shows fewer than five student cases at India Hook Elementary and Sullivan Middle schools, with fewer than five staff cases at Mount Holly Elementary School.
York, Lancaster, Chester COVID cases
Outside of schools, two more tri-county deaths were reported Friday from COVID-19. A York County resident died Aug. 14 and a Chester County resident died Sept. 14. There have now been 65 confirmed or probable coronavirus deaths in York County. Lancaster County has 45 and Chester County 21 such deaths.
DHEC also reported 28 confirmed and one probable COVID-19 case in York County on Friday. Lancaster County had 17 confirmed and one probable, while Chester County had three new confirmed cases.
Statewide there were almost 800 new confirmed or probable cases announced Friday, and 21 deaths. There have been more than 136,000 cases and 3,177 deaths since the pandemic began.
