Rock Hill, Fort Mill schools add COVID cases. York County reports near-record day.
Only one new school joined the COVID-19 list Tuesday from York, Lancaster or Chester counties. However, the other side of that coin is, most tri-county schools are already on it.
Also across the state, there were 1,088 new confirmed cases on Tuesday. Case reports in York, Lancaster and Chester counties also continued to climb.
Among the school coronavirus cases reported Tuesday, Richmond Drive Elementary School in the Rock Hill School District appeared on the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control list. The cumulative list dates back to early September. DHEC updates the list every Tuesday and Friday.
Three-quarters of the 102 tri-county public schools have now reported at least one case. Richmond Drive reported fewer than five student cases. DHEC lists numbers as fewer than five until they reach that point.
Five more tri-county schools added their first staff cases, after having prior student cases. They include Old Pointe Elementary School and Sunset Park Center for Accelerated Studies in Rock Hill, Pleasant Knoll Middle School in the Fort Mill School District, York Middle School in the York School District and Clinton Elementary School in the Lancaster County School District.
Springfield Elementary School in Fort Mill added its first student cases, after prior staff cases.
Districts provide their own data, which often varies from DHEC figures. Districts also vary in whether they provide active, cumulative or both sets of cases, quarantine numbers and other details.
Here’s a district-by-district rundown:
Rock Hill schools
The Rock Hill district lists three new student and five new staff cases this week. There are 56 students and 13 staff either in quarantine or isolation.
There have been 118 cases this school year. There have been 937 students and 226 staff in quarantine or isolation.
Northwestern (15), Rock Hill (13) and South Pointe (10) high schools each have double digit student cases this school year.
Fort Mill schools
The Fort Mill school dashboard is updated each Friday. It lists only active cases. There are 17 student and nine staff positives listed.
Nation Ford High School (5) and Kings Town Elementary School (3) have the most student cases. The 17 student cases come from 10 schools.
Kings Town, Fort Mill High School and other district personnel account for the most staff cases, at two each. The nine staff cases come from six schools and district employee groups.
More than half the 307 students in quarantine (157) are in elementary schools. So are more than half of the 53 total staff quarantines, at 28 elementary staff members.
Clover schools
The Clover School District shows six active student cases, and a staff one. The district has 76 student and 29 staff cases since school began.
Clover High School has two active student cases, and a staff one. Clover High has 42 student and 10 staff cases this school year. Bethel Elementary School, with two active student cases, is the only other district school with multiple active cases. Active cases come from four district schools.
York schools
The York district now shows 23 student and 15 staff cases since school began. There are seven active student and five active staff cases.
York Comprehensive High School (10 student, 1 staff) has the most cases followed by York Intermediate School (7 student, 3 staff) and Harold C. Johnson Elementary School (2 student, 4 staff).
Lancaster County schools
The Lancaster County district gives data by week. It doesn’t name schools. Last week, there were 41 new student and staff positive cases. That’s double what the district reported in prior weeks.
Elementary (11 student, eight staff) schools had the most cases. High schools (11 student, 1 staff), middle schools (3 student, 4 staff) and district personnel (3 staff) added to the list. Another 201 students and 110 staff went into quarantine last week.
Chester County schools
The Chester County School District updates online data on weekdays. The dashboard shows 29 cases this school year. There are 17 student and 12 staff cases.
Lewisville Elementary School (7), Lewisville High School (6) and Chester High School (4) have the most total cases.
SC DHEC COVID school data
Statewide there are 3,271 reported coronavirus cases in schools. Of them, 2,287 are student and 984 are staff cases. Total cases are up by 267 since Friday, and 520 in a week.
Right at 75% of public schools in the tri-county area have at least one case reported. Districts range from 67% of their schools with cases in York to 90% in Clover.
High schools tend to have the most cases. Yet several non-high schools now have an exact number given for their DHEC case counts. Indian Land Elementary School has six student cases. Sullivan Middle School in Rock Hill has five, as does York Intermediate School in York. Indian Land and York also have fewer than five staff cases.
Nine area high schools have five or more student cases. Five of the nine also have at least one staff cases. The highest student case counts are from Clover (19), Fort Mill (13), Rock Hill (9), Nation Ford (8), Andrew Jackson (7), Northwestern (7), South Pointe (7), Indian Land (5) and Lancaster (5).
York, Lancaster, Chester coronavirus
Total COVID counts remain high in this region.
DHEC listed coronavirus cases by county Tuesday. York County had 118 confirmed cases. It was the fifth day of 100 or more cases in the county since the pandemic began. York County also had 16 probable cases.
Lancaster County added 37 confirmed cases and a probable. Chester County had five confirmed cases and a probable.
Statewide there were 1,088 new confirmed cases on Tuesday. There were 58 probable cases. There have been almost 198,000 confirmed or probable cases in South Carolina.
One of the 14 confirmed or probable COVID-19 deaths announced Tuesday was a York County resident. A resident, who DHEC lists as age 35-64, died Nov. 16. The death was a confirmed coronavirus case. Most deaths statewide have been elderly residents.
There now have been 4,156 confirmed or probable COVID-19 deaths statewide. York County has 122. Lancaster County has 64 and Chester County 32.
This story was originally published November 17, 2020 at 4:04 PM.
