1,300 Beaufort County students in quarantine after one week. Where are cases highest?
In their first week back to school, 6.9% of Beaufort County School District students were either sick with COVID-19 or quarantined, district officials said Tuesday. The number of students quarantining has more than doubled since Aug. 18.
Together, students and staff had 200 COVID cases and more than 1,300 quarantines. Students make up 180 of the COVID cases logged between Aug. 16 — the first day of school — and Sunday; 20 employee cases were logged in the same seven-day stretch.
About 6.1% of the district’s enrollment, 1,315 students, were quarantined during the same time period. That’s way up from the 544 students who were reported as quarantining between Aug. 9-18.
From Aug. 16-22, 40 staff members were quarantining. About 2% of the district’s roughly 2,900 employees were either sick with COVID-19 or quarantined.
Three high schools south of the Broad River reported the most COVID cases among students in the district.
Bluffton High School logged 23 student COVID infections between Aug. 16-22, and May River and Hilton Head Island High each logged 16 infections.
The school district is not maintaining a COVID-19 dashboard this year as it did last year, according to its reopening guidelines.
COVID-19 cases in Beaufort County are at an all-time high, with 131 confirmed new cases and seven deaths reported by the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control on Monday.
The county’s seven-day average of new infections is 151 every day, which breaks the previous record of 147 set Sunday.
This story was originally published August 24, 2021 at 12:45 PM.