Hundreds of students quarantined in Rock Hill-area school districts. What we know now.
School districts across York, Lancaster and Chester Counties reported rising numbers of COVID-19 cases, as well as hundreds of students quarantined, after the first week of school.
Note: students who have been quarantined could be quarantined due to exposure before the start school. Case numbers are “active cases,” meaning the student currently tests positive for COVID-19.
Here are the totals in each school district, as of Tuesday at 4 p.m.
Fort Mill School District
Fort Mill has 179 positive COVID cases and more than double the quarantines the district reported on Friday. The Fort Mill School District has 166 student and 13 staff positive cases.
Most cases come from elementary (76) and middle (65) schools. Forest Creek Middle School has the most with 29 cases. Forest Creek has three times the cases of the next highest schools.
Another 1,181 students and 12 staff members are listed in quarantine. Those amounts are more than double what the district had as of Friday afternoon. Four schools have more than 100 quarantines. Forest Creek has the most with 103. Kings Town (135), Orchard Park (110) and Tega Cay (103) elementary schools are next.
Students who are listed as “quarantined,” are “individuals who are considered to be in close contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19,” according to the district’s website. “Close contact,” is defined as “someone who has been within three feet, for a time greater than 15 minutes, of someone who has tested positive for COVID-19.”
Lancaster County School District
Lancaster County School District’s policy is to quarantine students who have been in contact with someone who tests positive for the coronavirus. The entire class will be quarantined if one student has the virus.
This means the 139 reported cases of coronavirus at LCSD have led to 1,110 students quarantined.
The district has 15,170 students enrolled this year, District Representative Michelle Craig said. This means about 7% of students are currently quarantined.
York School District
York School District reports 71 positive cases. There are currently 506 students in quarantine.
Students are quarantined according to the DHEC definition. That means students are staying home due to close contact with someone with the coronavirus.
Rock Hill Schools
Rock Hill schools are currently reporting 45 new positive cases, with 395 students in quarantine due to COVID-19 exposure.
Clover School District
Clover schools currently have 51 COVID-positive students. The district has 278 quarantined students.
Chester County School District
While Chester County School District enacted a mask mandate Monday, it has the lowest number of quarantined students.
Chester requires students who are exposed to COVID-19 to be quarantined for up to 24 days, with 200 currently quarantined. The district reports 68 positive cases.
This story was originally published August 24, 2021 at 5:28 PM.
