More than 860 students and teachers from a single school district in Georgia are currently in quarantine after dozens of COVID-19 infections were reported when in-person classes were resumed a week ago.
Schools in Cherokee County have asked 826 students and 42 teachers to be quarantined for 14 days because of possible exposure to coronavirus just six days into the new school year.
The 42,000-student district, which is just outside Atlanta, said on Monday that 38 students and 12 teachers tested positive for the virus during the week that classes resumed.
Those asked to be quarantined were identified as part of the neighborhood contact effort as people who may have come into close contact with an infected student or teacher.
The school district attracted national attention last week when a photo of students at Etowah High School clashed together to wear photos of first-day-of-school without a mask.
Schools in the Cherokee County neighborhood of Georgia have asked 826 students and 42 teachers to be quarantined for 14 days because of possible coronavirus exposure. District drew national attention last week when a photo of students at Etowah High School together for first-day-of-school senior photos without masks was printed
Cherokee County Schools Superintendent Brian Hightower sent a letter home to parents stating that many of the seniors in those photos wear ‘masks’ routines, even though the school does not require them.
Nearly 300 students at Etowah High School are currently quarantined.
The school district places information on all confirmed infections and quarantines on its website in a bid to be transparent.
‘As made clear in our review of school curriculum, we expected positive testing to occur among students and staff, which is why we are deploying a system to quickly contact track, quarantine mandate, inform parents and cases and quarantines report to the entire community, ”said Cherokee spokeswoman Barbara Jacoby.
“We do not doubt students and staff in quarantine who have had possible exposure – even if the positive test was prompted by possible exposure instead of symptoms.”
No statewide mask mandate is currently in place in Georgia, but the Cherokee County School District has encouraged students to wear them.
It comes as Georgia Mayor Brian Kemp said on Monday that the reopening of some of the state’s schools was going well amid the pandemic outbreak – except for the widely shared photos of students filled out without masks.
Students at Sequoyah High School change classes on 4th day of first week of face-to-face school in Cherokee County
The state of Georgia currently has more than 219,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases
“I honestly think this week went very well other than a few virtual photos,” Goai Kemp said at a news conference with U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams.
Kemp and the Surgeon General have both noted that Georgia can expect to see newly reported cases as schools and businesses reopen.
“I want the people of Georgia to know that we do not have to wait until we get a fax,” Adams said. “We do not have to hide until we get a miracle therapeutic.”
But he also warned that students should follow the guidance of health officials, including social distance and wearing masks.
“To the children in schools, I want you to understand: if you want to be a prom in person next year, if you want to go to spring, if you want to graduate, then we need to work with you,” he said.
Democrats, however, strongly opposed the assessment that reopening of schools was safe, and blamed Kemp and President Donald Trump for failures.
More than 80 school districts in Georgia have opened as plans to open for some instructional instruction by August 17, according to figures maintained by school reform group GeorgiaCAN.
“It’s so risky and our caseload is not managed effectively, that there’s just no way we can sensually open schools for personal instruction,” said Gwinnett County School Board member Everton Blair, a Democrat.
‘Then you see evidence of the same thing in counties all over the state, where they are immediately, the first day they opened, immediately quarantined. ‘
It comes as Georgia Governor Brian Kemp said on Monday that the reopening of some of the state’s schools in the midst of the pandemic outbreak went well – except for the widely shared photos of students filling out without masks
.
