Elementary students quarantined at home

    Andrews – Several Andrews Elementary School students are quarantined at home this week due to possible exposure to COVID-19 at Tiny Tots Day Care. The day-care facility was closed Friday.
    Cherokee County Health Director David Badger said as of Monday morning the center did not have a cluster of cases, which is a minimum of five positive test results in child care or school settings. He could not share more about the closure, except that the health department was doing contact tracing and gathering information from testing.
    Cherokee County Schools lead nurse Heather Watson could only say that quite a few of the 23 students on quarantine at Andrews Elementary were related to the day care. No students at the school or in the district had active COVID-19 infections as of Friday.
    Murphy Elementary School also had an entire second-grade classroom sent home Friday as a precaution, Watson said. She could not reveal their possible source of exposure, but said those students may return to school Monday.
    Murphy Elementary also had seven staff members quarantined as of Friday, three of whom tested positive for COVID-19. The school continued to have enough staff to cover roles so it did not have to close.
    Watson said the district still has not had spread of the virus among students. On Friday, 85 students district-wide were quarantined for possible exposure, with none known to be positive for the coronavirus. There were also 18 staff members district-wide quarantined, five who tested positive.