COVID- 19 case pauses football at Pope High

The Pope High School football team has been temporarily sidelined due to a case of COVID- 19.

The case was confifirmed last week by the Cobb & Douglas PublicHealthDepartment and all team activities have been halted, a spokesman for the Cobb County School District said Monday.

Cobb schoolsdeclinedto say if thecase originatedfroma student or staffffmember and how many people are affffffffffffected by the diagnosis. The local health department ishandling contact tracing and the team will not meet until that process is complete, the district said.

According to the school’s website, there are 71 students onthePopeGreyhoundsvarsity team. In addition, 10 coaches and managers work with the varsity team and three with the freshman team.

Pope High has been closed to in- personlearning so far this school year, but could reopen Nov. 5 if the district sticks to its reopening plan.

Noindicationhasbeen given if the Greyhounds will cancel Pope’s homecoming game at 7: 30 p. m. Friday against the KennesawMountainMustangs.

Lastmonth, COVID- 19 cases onfootball teamsatSouthCobb and Harrison high schools forced them to cancel their games, TheAtlantaJournal- Constitution previously reported.

Following itsphasedreopeningof classrooms toelementary andmiddleschoolstudentsand students with special needs, Cobb County schools earlier this month began providing a detailed listing of confifirmed COVID- 19 cases at schools that areopenfor in- personlearning.

As of Monday, nine elementary schools and six middle schools have between 1 and 10 confifirmed cases. Numbers for high schools will be released Nov. 13, a week after the third reopening phase begins for those students.

The district has 382 cases that have beenconfifirmed since July by Cobb & Douglas Public Health. A breakdown on how many of those cases are active has not been released by the district.