Two week checkup: How widespread is COVID in Rock Hill, Fort Mill and other schools?
Two weeks into school, there are just less than 1,000 active COVID-19 cases among area students and staff.
Public school districts in York, Lancaster and Chester counties combine for 990 positives. There are more than 9,200 active positives, quarantines or isolation cases — roughly the population of the City of Lancaster — across those six districts. The wide majority of all those cases involve students.
Districts must manage state law and their own stated desires to have students in school buildings for the best education. Lancaster County School District superintendent Jonathan Phipps spoke on that struggle when his board met Friday.
It was a day when that district both shortened the possible length of quarantine time away from school and switched Indian Land Intermediate School virtual due to COVID spread. Phipps said Friday the positive cases, double in his district what they were at peak last year, can’t be ignored.
“Last year with that, we would’ve shut schools down,” Phipps said. “We probably would’ve shut the district down.”
Districts vary some in how they report cases counts. All of the data, though, shows a similar trend.
Fort Mill schools have 259 student positives. There are 15 more staff positives. All but six of the 20 district schools have double digit student positives. Forest Creek Middle School has the most student (41) and staff (5) positives.
Forest Creek went virtual last week for a two-week stretch, aimed at preventing community spread in the new school. There were 29 student positives when Forest Creek made that move.
The Fort Mill School District has 1,477 students and staff in quarantine. More than half, at 765 quarantines, are elementary school students.
Rock Hill schools have 200 student and 18 staff positives, just from last week. The Rock Hill School District has 1,663 student and 15 staff quarantines for the week, plus 386 student and 38 staff isolation cases.
There are eight district schools with double digit student positives. Northwestern High School has the most with 22. Four schools have more than 100 student quarantines, led by Sullivan Middle School with 275 quarantines.
There are 99 active student and 13 active staff cases in Clover schools. There are 482 active quarantines and 180 isolation cases. Of all Clover School District students, 9% are in a positive case, quarantine or isolation. It’s not quite 2% for district staff.
The larger schools have the most active student cases. Clover High School (26), Oakridge Middle School (22) and Clover Middle School (16) are the only schools with more than nine active cases. At 157 student quarantines, Oakridge Middle has well more than twice what any other district school has.
There are 95 student and 11 staff cases in York schools. York Comprehensive High School (34) and York Middle School (23) have the most student positives.
The York School District has 788 quarantines and 178 isolations. The high school alone has 284 quarantines and 42 isolations, both most among nine district schools.
Indian Land Intermediate School went virtual this week due to a staff shortage brought on by high COVID case counts. The school has had about 40 cases this school year among students and staff, according to a letter to parents on Friday announcing the move to virtual. About half the school population was out due to COVID.
Across Lancaster County schools there are 222 positive cases and 2,808 quarantines among students and staff. More than half of all student and staff positives come from elementary schools. Most of the quarantines do, too.
In Chester County schools, there have been 58 positive cases reported the past two weeks. Of the 68 total for the school year, 57 have been student cases. There are 200 current quarantine cases in the Chester County School District.
This story was originally published August 30, 2021 at 11:30 AM.
