Beaufort Co. to stop test-to-stay after school district continues to see COVID cases drop
All schools in the Beaufort County School District qualified Tuesday to drop test-to-stay and quarantine programs under the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control’s new guidance, officials say.
The new policy will take effect immediately, Beaufort County School District spokesperson Candace Bruder said Tuesday. The decision was based on data from individual schools’ quarantines and isolations over a two-week period that was reported to DHEC from Feb. 14-28.
Once test-to-stay has stopped, students who have been exposed to COVID but don’t have symptoms no longer will need to be tested at home if they want to stay in class. The program also required contact tracing and masking. If a school reaches 10% or more students and staff with COVID for two weeks, then the test-to-stay or quarantine practices will be required again, DHEC said in a press release last week.
In a board meeting Tuesday night, Superintendent Frank Rodriguez reported one positive staff case and nine positive student cases for the week of Feb. 21-25. The week of Feb. 14-18, schools had between 7 and 28 confirmed cases for staff and between 19 and 52 for students. The district also reported 145 to 196 quarantines for students and staff that week.
Of the 30 schools that reported data to DHEC, none had more than 10 cases of COVID and seven schools reported 10 or more quarantines for students. No school reported more than four teachers who were quarantined for that week. Two schools, Beaufort-Jasper Academy for Career Excellence and Riverview Charter School, did not report.
The updated guidance is a recognition of the impact the pandemic has had on students and educators, said Edward Simmer, DHEC’s Director, in the press release.
“Our updated guidance recognizes that COVID-19 is an illness that we now need to treat and manage as endemic, and will help our schools, childcare centers, and ultimately all of us make that transition,” Simmer said. “At the same time, it also allows us to respond quickly should another surge or impactful new variant arise.”
This story was originally published March 1, 2022 at 9:01 PM.
