This week’s local COVID news: Local cases don’t stop in-person class on Grand Strand
As cases rise in the area, students in the Horry County and Georgetown county school districts will soon return to the classroom after COVID-19 concerns interrupted in-person learning in December.
The vaccine rollout in the state began last month, but it has been criticized as slow and school personnel aren’t authorized to receive the vaccine until phase 1B begins, which is projected to be late winter. Without being able to rely on widespread vaccine distribution to ensure safety in schools, local school boards mulled over different possibilities and ultimately made decisions on in-person instruction this week.
South Carolina is facing a troubling surge as the positivity rate reached 26.5% and more than 2,400 residents were hospitalized with COVID-19.
Horry’s latest coronavirus trends and education decisions
Horry County Schools will return to a hybrid schedule next week, the district announced Wednesday. The decision comes after a two-week break from in-person learning due to coronavirus concerns in the area and a difficulty tracking students over the holiday break. The district’s reopening plan says it will continue under a hybrid schedule, meaning students learn in-person and virtually, until it is deemed safe to return to the classroom full-time.
Some HCS students are participating in an all-virtual model this year, but that number is estimated to be less than 20% of all the district’s students. Among staff and students, the district has tracked more than 1,000 cases of the coronavirus since the beginning of the school year.
When discussing whether students can return to the classroom, the school board analyzes whether there are enough teachers available for the number of students. According to the district’s COVID-19 dashboard, 166 staff members are in quarantine as of Friday, 36 of which are employees at the district office.
Horry County’s overall COVID-19 cases have reached 21, 112 since mid-March and 291 deaths have been reported. This week, the county added nine deaths and more than 1,000 cases to its count.
Tracking COVID-19 in Georgetown County and its schools
In Georgetown County, which has faced an outbreak in its middle school, school board members voted unanimously to allow elementary school students to return to classes four days a week beginning in February. The plan is to instruct students online on Wednesdays while the buildings undergo deep cleaning.
School board members haven’t outlined a plan for middle and high school students returning to the classroom, citing the lower incidence rate among younger children as a reason to put elementary school kids back in school earlier.
Like school officials across the country, board members and teachers are grappling with how to balance health concerns and academic barriers to learning virtually. Georgetown County School District Superintendent Keith Price said the district will continue to monitor the situation.
“We’re gonna watch to see how effective this is and how safe this is,” Price said after a school board meeting this week.
Georgetown County has recorded 3,508 cases and 71 deaths of COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. This week, nearly 300 cases were added to the county’s overall count.
This story was originally published January 15, 2021 at 7:23 PM.
