Quarantines bigger concern
Murphy – As November ended, lead nurse Heather Watson was surprised by how low Cherokee County Schools’ COVID-19 numbers were. Only 45 students – seven who were remote – had tested positive for the coronavirus since the school year began, while 26 staff members had tested positive.
“We’re doing way better than I thought we were going to do,” Watson said.
She said the biggest issue for the schools has been quarantines. Since the year began, 626 students and 164 staff members have had to be quarantined – some more than once – just for possible exposure to the virus.
However, even with the quarantine issues, only one school has had to temporarily close, and only a few classrooms have had to temporarily move to remote learning.
Of those who have tested positive, Watson said only one student had serious complications and had to be hospitalized. As far as she knew, no other students or staff had major complications from the virus.
Watson attributes the district’s success so far to the schools doing a great job with sanitizing surfaces and hand washing, everyone wearing masks and social distancing in the buildings, and parents doing a great job of keeping children home when they are sick. She also thinks school nurses have done a great job of contact tracing when someone tests positive.
In addition, she thinks the measures the schools have following for COVID will contribute to less spread of the flu, which has closed local schools in the past.
“I’m more concerned about how flu symptoms mimic COVID symptoms,” she said.
In November alone, Cherokee County Schools saw 168 students and 41 staff members quarantined for possible exposure, with two students and 11 staff testing positive for COVID-19. The N.C. Department of Health & Human Services reported that 70 children ages 5-17 have tested positive for the virus here since March.
Watson asked that everyone continue to do the good work they’ve been doing to prevent the spread of the virus in the schools.