Students who recently traveled to Myrtle Beach brought COVID-19 Back to West Virginia and Ohio, health officials say. A total of 91 students traveled from various counties in those states to the destination in South Carolina, and of those, 45 were from Belmont County, Ohio, the county’s deputy health commissioner, Rob Sproul told CBS News.
Sproul said Tuesday that so far, 16 of those 45 travelers have tested positive for COVID-19. Another person, a close contact of a traveler, has also tested positive, and others are being tested.
The 16 students come from various high schools in Belmont County, including Bellaire High School and Shady Side High School, Sproul told CBS News. The two schools have now suspended all sports activities, which were scheduled to resume on Monday when the state entered Phase 2 of reopening after the shutdown, Sproul said.
“It is an initiation rite, but this year the children came home with more than just sand in their shorts, they received COVID 19,” Bellaire schools superintendent Darren Jenkins told affiliate WTRF-TV on Monday. from CBS. He said schools will be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected, and activities will only resume when everyone is out of quarantine.
Students who recently traveled from Myrtle Beach to West Virginia are also linked to a new outbreak there. On Monday, the state’s Preston County counted four additional cases that appeared to be related to the outbreak, bringing the total number of positive cases involved in the outbreak to 30, the Preston County Health Department said in a statement Tuesday. CBS News.
“We can now also confirm community transmission in Preston County in connection with the outbreak,” the statement read. “This means that people who were exposed to confirmed positives after the return from Myrtle Beach have now tested positive for COVID-19.”
West Virginia’s Kanawha County and Cabell County were also affected, CBS affiliate WHSV-TV reported last week. As of June 18, Myrtle Beach travel was related to at least three cases in Kanawha County and at least five in Cabell County, local authorities said, according to WHSV.
CBS News has contacted health officials in each county for updated information on the number cases.
South Carolina has had more than 25,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus so far, according to the state department of health. Several days ago, on June 19, the state experienced the biggest jump in a single day in cases: 1,161 new cases.
West Virginia reported a total of 2,582 confirmed cases of coronavirus, while Ohio reported 42,254 as of Tuesday, according to state health departments.
Officials from nearby Allegheny County, Pennsylvania have warned residents of travel during the coronavirus pandemic. “Going on vacation where you’re going to be in a busy area is probably not the best thing to do. If you’re going to do that, it makes sense to quarantine when you return to Pennsylvania,” said Dr. Arvind Venkat. , an emergency physician at Allegheny Health Network, told CBS Pittsburgh.
Just because the increase in cases in Pennsylvania has been relatively low compared to other states, doesn’t mean that residents should take the drop in COVID-19 cases for granted, Venkat said. He said it is now up to citizens to control the spread of the virus, adding that travelers should follow health and safety precautions while on vacation.
Pennsylvania has 82,186 confirmed cases of coronavirus, according to the state department of health.
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