School districts are following the reports coming from their local health departments as students return for the 2021-2022 school year.
Health departments nationwide continue to report thousands of new cases of COVID-19 daily. Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Aug. 19 an estimated 98% of new cases are caused by the more easily-transmissible delta variant.
MORE: Schools Lay Out Plans to Cope With Rising COVID-19 Cases
For many students, it’s been a return to five-day-a-week, face-to-face instruction after spending much of the previous school year learning remotely or on a hybrid schedule.
Dr. Linda Bell, state epidemiologist with the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control said schools in her state began reporting COVID-19 cases among K-12 students and staff the week of Aug. 9.
Bell said, “To date, we have seen a total of 287 cases in our schools since we started tracking this data on Aug. 2. This includes 226 students and 61 cases among teachers.”
The information is available on the DHEC website.
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School districts in the Palmetto State are prohibited from mandating mask-wearing by a proviso in the state budget that was passed by the legislature. The Palmetto State Teachers Association said it puts students and staff at risk. In a written statement, the PSTA called on state leaders to take immediate action to ensure schools can stay open safely.
“The individual with the greatest capacity to act immediately is Gov. McMaster, who should declare a state of emergency in order to suspend the state budget proviso that prohibits local school districts from requiring face masks,” reads the statement. “In a similar vein, the General Assembly should reconvene to repeal the proviso so public school districts can have the same option to implement the types of mask requirements being employed by numerous private schools.”
The legislature is to reconvene in mid-September, but the PSTA says that is too late to act.
The Georgia Department of Public Health also posts cumulative data on cases of COVID-19 among school aged children on its website.
The Augusta Press requested results from Georgia officials like those provided by SCDHEC that tabulate the number of cases among students and staff since the beginning of this school year.
Spokeswoman Nancy Nydam responded, “This is the data we are providing. And precise numbers are only precise at the instant they’re given. That’s why epidemiologists look at trends over time.”
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The Richmond County School System announced on Aug. 18 that Belair K-8 School will transition to the Learn@Home model from Aug. 19 through Aug. 27 due to increased coronavirus activity at the school. The school’s first day of this academic year was Aug. 9.
Richmond and Columbia County school districts are posting the number of COVID-19 cases to their website.
Spokesman Mike Rosier said Aiken County will begin posting updates the week of Aug. 23.
MORE: Preparing for a New School Year With COVID-19 Cases Rising
To highlight the importance of vaccinations, both GDPH and SCDHEC are posting information on how many cases are among fully-vaccinated people, the so-called breakthrough cases, and how many are among people who are unvaccinated or only partially-vaccinated.
During the SCDHEC weekly briefing, Bell said, “COVID-19 is killing our loved ones, and it doesn’t care how old or young you are.”
Dana Lynn McIntyre is a Staff Reporter with The Augusta Press. You can reach her at dana@theaugustapress.com.
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