A student at High Villages High Villages has tested positive for the potentially deadly COVID-19 virus.
The positive result that was reported Thursday at the school is the first among students as staff members in the Sumter County School system since schools opened this past Monday, according to assistant supervisor Deborah Moffitt. She added that she had no other information available about the positive result at the charter college.
“We report all possible cases to the Department of Health and they determine if isolation should occur and the duration of that isolation,” she said. “Employees are informed of the procedures if they become exposed or ill. Staff are trained on how to deal with students who become ill at school. ”
Moffitt said face-to-face coverage and daily temperature checks are mandatory for all staff and students.
“Our school nurses are also trained to administer a PCR test on site to sick staff as well as students with parental consent,” she said, adding to the school district’s website, https://www.sumter.k12. fl.us/, will soon include information on positive COVID-19 cases reported in schools in Sumter County.
The case at The Villages High School follows a positive result that was reported Wednesday at Fruitland Park Elementary School. In that incident, a student tested positive and parents and staff members were informed of the result. The student and two others who had direct contact were advised to quarantine by guidelines from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, according to communications director Sherri Owens of Lake County Schools.
So far this week, Owen said, there have been three positive results among Lake County students – the other two were at Tavares High School – with 22 students in quarantine. She said five employees have also tested positive and a total of 13 are being quarantined. Those employees work at Leesburg Elementary, Lost Lake Elementary, Lake Technical College and Mount Dora High School, Owens said.
A Florida Department of Health report released Thursday showed that 11.5 percent of children in the triage area suffer from COVID-19. Those statistics also show that 1,156 children under the age of 18 in the local area tested positive for the potentially deadly virus, which represents about 7.1 percent of the total number of cases – 16,228 – reported in the tri-area area.
As of Thursday, 558 minors in Marion County were reported positive for COVID-19, along with 512 from Lake County and 86 from Sumter County. In total, 10,057 youth were tested in the local area – 4,136 in Marion County, 5,309 in Lake County and 612 in Sumter County.
Across Florida, there were 48,928 positive results among the 326,368 minors tested. That amounts to a positive percentage of 15 percent across the state, which is higher than the 11.5 percent rate in the local area.
There have been eight deaths among minors in Florida – two in the 5-10 age group, two in the 11-13 age group and four in the 14-17 age group. Also, 611 children with the virus were admitted to the hospital, according to the Florida Department of Health.
The age distribution of those minors reported with COVID-19 across Florida is:
- Under 1 year old – 2,604 cases (5 percent);
- 1-4 years old – 7,644 cases (16 percent);
- 5-10 years old – 13,018 cases (27 percent);
- 11-13 years old – 8,281 cases (17 percent); en
- 14-17 years old – 17,381 cases (36 percent).
