In the six days that Cherokee County schools have been in session, the North Georgia district has had to direct 826 students to quarantine due to possible exposure to COVID-19, along with 42 teachers.
In following health guidelines, districts inform parents when a student has had close contract with — including sitting nearby — someone who tests positive for COVID-19 and advises 14-day quarantines at home. Most of the exposures to students have come from classmates, although a few cases involve teachers and staff who tested positive.
“As made clear in our reopening of school plan, we anticipated positive tests among students and staff could occur, which is why we put a system into place to quickly contact trace, mandate quarantines, notify parents and report cases and quarantines to the entire community,” said Cherokee spokeswoman Barbara Jacoby. “We are not hesitating to quarantine students and staff who have had possible exposure – even if the positive test was prompted by possible exposure rather than symptoms.”