Two days after classes started, COVID infects more than 100 Horry County Schools students
It didn’t take long for COVID-19 to derail the typical plans for some Horry County students.
Only two days into the school year, the district already has at least 104 active cases in students, including 12 staff cases and 51 staff members in quarantine, according to Horry County Schools (HCS) COVID-19 dashboard. This data is current as of Wednesday afternoon, and the dashboard is updated once daily around 4 p.m.
Horry County Schools welcomed students back to the classroom full-time Tuesday as coronavirus cases and hospitalizations are surging due to the ultra-contagious delta variant. Clusters of cases are starting to pop up in the school district, landing students and staff behind the computer screen for virtual learning in quarantine.
The district has chosen to follow a state proviso indicating school districts are prohibited from requiring masks in schools, and most students have returned to the classroom full-time. Only around 1,600 students had chosen the virtual option, compared to thousands who chose to go to school online last year.
HCS doesn’t report the number of students in quarantine because it doesn’t affect school operations, so it’s unclear how many students have been exposed to the virus and told to quarantine.
While HCS won’t require masks, the safety protocols like disinfecting buses and “high-touch” areas will continue, according to HCS spokesperson Lisa Bourcier. The district is also conducting contact tracing in order to determine who has been exposed to the virus.
This story was originally published August 19, 2021 at 12:12 PM.
