Three hundred and ten students and 41 teachers and staff throughout schools in Leflore and Carroll counties have been quarantined after exposure to COVID-19 last week, according to the Mississippi State Department of Health.
Additionally, at least 11 students and at least one teacher or staff member within these schools have tested positive for the virus during the week of Aug. 9-13, the department said in its weekly COVID-19 report, which was released Tuesday.
Leflore Legacy Academy, a charter school, reported 64 students were in quarantine, or about one-fourth of its students. This was the highest number of students in quarantine in the two counties, followed by Threadgill Elementary School with 58.
Two teachers and/or staff members at Leflore Legacy are quarantined, and between one and five students have tested positive for the virus, according to the state Health Department. Fourteen teachers and/or staff members at Threadgill Elementary are quarantined, and between one and five students have tested positive.
Greenwood High School, which was closed all of last week following an outbreak of cases among five students that occurred during the first week of this month, reported that no students are quarantined.
However, Dr. Mary Brown, the superintendent of the Greenwood Leflore Consolidated School District, told the school board Monday that four students at the high had tested positive for the virus following screenings that were held at the school Friday. Charles Johnson, the district’s assistant superintendent, said in an email Wednesday that these four students would be in isolation for 10 days, following the state Health Department’s guidance for positive cases.
No other students at the high school were found to have been in close contact since the school’s campus was shut down last week, he added.
St. Francis of Assisi School had no quarantines or positive cases for its students, faculty or staff. The other private schools — Carroll Academy, Delta Streets Academy and Pillow Academy — did not report their COVID-19 numbers to the state.
Carroll Academy has shut down its elementary school for all of this week after an unspecified number of students, staff and teachers from kindergarten through sixth grade either contracted COVID-19 or have to quarantine after exposure to the virus.
All private and public schools throughout the state are required to report their weekly COVID-19 numbers to the state Health Department, although some routinely ignore that directive.
Statewide, 803 schools throughout 74 counties have reported their numbers, revealing that 948 teachers and staff and 4,521 students tested positive for the virus last week while 1,463 teachers and staff and 20,334 students have quarantined as result of exposure.
“Remember that the schools are reflective of what’s going on in the community,” in terms of COVID-19 transmission, Dr. Paul Byers, the state’s epidemiologist, told reporters Wednesday during a Zoom press conference. “We’re seeing a pretty significant impact on the schools right now.”
The state Health Department’s weekly school COVID-19 reports can be accessed at bit.ly/3AX2dlR.
- Contact Gerard Edic at 581-7239 or gedic@gwcommonwealth.com.
