More than 800 students, staff quarantined
Nearly 400 cases from Osceola County after positive tests at schools
More than 800 students and staff in Central Florida public schools faced quarantine in the last week because of exposure to the coronavirus, according to updated COVID-19 data reported by local school districts Tuesday.
Nearly 400 of the quarantine cases were from Osceola County after positive tests were reported at about a dozen schools, the school district’s weekly COVID report showed. Almost all of those in quarantine were students.
Contact tracing led health officials to conclude that 99 teenagers from Tohokepaliga High School needed to be quarantined because they’d been exposed to two students who tested positive, said
Dana Schafer, a district spokeswoman, in an email.
“Remember high school students are exposed to a greater number of students as they sit in seven or so different classes,” she wrote.
One of the two students who tested positive had tried out for a sports team, Schafer added, so that increased the quarantine tally at the school on Boggy Creek Road. Other Osceola schools with double-digit quarantine numbers included Harmony High School with 57, Gateway High School with 45 and Kissimmee Middle School with 44.
The Orange school district reported 20 new COVID-19 cases at 13 schools late Tuesday and said188 people had been told to quarantine.
The bulk of the quarantines were from Olympia High School, which school leaders ordered closed on Sunday after learning136
students, 19 teachers and one bus driver had been exposed to the coronarvirus. But 32 quarantines stemmed from cases reported at
Edgewater High School and Lake Whitney Elementary School.
The school district’s message to parents late Tuesday included a warning about Olympia, where students who were doing in-person lessons now must study online for two weeks using the district’s LaunchED platform.
“We want reinforce the importance for parents to be prepared with a backup plan in the event your child’s classroom or school needs to pivot to LaunchED@Home due to the number of positives cases or quarantines,” the message said.
In Seminole County, officials said 128 people were in quarantine, with new positive cases reported at three schools. Lake Mary High School had the largest number of new quarantines at 12.
In Lake County, the school district reported103 students and seven staff members quarantined last week. The largest number was 15 students at South Lake High School.