Horry County Schools’ student COVID cases surpass last year’s total
Less than one month into the school year, Horry County Schools has recorded more students cases of COVID-19 than all of last year.
The district’s case-tracking dashboard shows 1,859 total student cases, including 519 active, as of Tuesday morning, compared to 1,777 student cases during the 2020-21 school year.
HCS has been operating with less restrictions this year, as the majority of last year was conducted on a hybrid schedule with students split into two groups with each group attending in-person classes two days per week. When students did return full time, the district had surrounded all desks with plexiglass barriers that were subsequently removed and discarded during the summer.
Students and staff were also required to wear masks in classrooms most of last year until an opt-out form was offered during the final few weeks. The South Carolina General Assembly prohibited school districts this year from implementing mask mandates.
The district has been operating fully in-person classes this year, though the spike in coronavirus cases has led to temporary closings of five schools, with those students moving to distance learning.
Those schools were initially set to be closed for two weeks, but the district recently adopted reduced quarantine timelines, as offered by the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control. About 12,400 students were quarantining as of Monday, along with 248 staff members, according to the dashboard.
DHEC has recently reported that children, particularly those unable to get vaccinated, have been contracting COVID-19 at nearly twice the rate that they were during the previous height of the pandemic.
This story was originally published September 7, 2021 at 10:31 AM.
