Fourth grader with COVID dies, SC school district says
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A South Carolina elementary school student with COVID-19 has died.
The Aiken County Coroner’s Office said a 9-year-old died Wednesday, WJBF reported.
A spokesman for the Aiken County School District said the boy was a fourth-grade student at North Augusta Elementary, according to the Augusta Chronicle.
“We were informed that the fourth-grade student had tested positive for COVID-19,” Aiken County School District Mike Rosier said to the Aiken Standard. “That is all the information I have at this time.”
Another Aiken County student, a 10th grader at Aiken High School, has also died, WFXG reported.
The coroner’s office has not released that student’s cause of death. But the coroner’s office told WJBF that it is investigating at least one other death of an Aiken County student related to COVID-19.
“The Aiken High School family is deeply saddened by the recent passing of one of our students. Our condolences and thoughts go out her family, friends, teachers, and all members of our Hornet family who supported her,” Aiken High School officials said in a statement shared by the Aiken Standard.
The Aiken County Board of Education will hold a “special called meeting” on Tuesday.
Since the first day of classes on Aug. 16, the Aiken County School District has reported 298 students and 43 employees have the coronavirus. Additionally, 4,039 students — more than 17% — and 91 staffers are in quarantine, according to the school district.
Overall, there are 23,330 students and 3,371 employees in the school district.
More than 17,000 South Carolina children under the age of 10 have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in the six weeks since the state’s first schools opened their doors in late July.
Children under 10 make up 12.4% of all COVID-19 cases over the last six weeks compared to just 3.7% of cases — the lowest of any age group — during the first six weeks of the 2020-2021 school year, according to South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control data.
The surge in infections among young children is forcing schools to suspend in-person classes and taxing children’s hospitals across the state.
As of Thursday afternoon, more than four-dozen schools in at least 20 South Carolina districts had temporarily transitioned to full virtual learning due to COVID-19 outbreaks and more schools are closing their doors each day, the state Department of Education said.
South Carolina has reported more than 752,000 (confirmed and probable) cases of the coronavirus and 10,781 deaths since the start of the pandemic. With 48% of the state’s population fully vaccinated, health officials are urging people to get the COVID-19 vaccine to help limit the spread of the virus and to protect themselves.
As of Thursday, there have been 503 breakthrough cases that led to hospitalizations in South Carolina, and 0.0058% of fully vaccinated people died of COVID-19, compared to 0.2% of all South Carolinians, according to DHEC.
This story was originally published September 5, 2021 at 3:51 PM with the headline "Fourth grader with COVID dies, SC school district says."
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