Southern High player tests positive for COVID

A Southern High varsity football player who attended practice Feb. 25 subsequently tested positive for COVID19, but the team will continue practicing after the county health department identified close contacts of the student-athlete.

The player and close contacts entered a two-week quarantine period starting Feb. 26, according to a letter to the families released Friday by principal Angela Hopkins, and they can return to practice starting next Friday. After consulting with the county Department of Health, it was determined the remainder of the varsity team, as well as the entire junior varsity team, may continue to practice.

Southern is scheduled to open its football season March 26 at Chesapeake.

Hopkins recommended in the letter that players and coaches who attended practice Feb. 26 get tested for COVID-19.

“It is important to understand that we are in the midst of a pandemic,” Hopkins wrote. “All of our programs take the necessary precautions in order to operate and no one is at fault for the spread of this virus. It is in a time like this that we all must support each other, and I know that we will do that.”

After a Severna Park varsity football player tested positive for the virus after a Feb. 17 practice, the team shut down all in-person activities for two weeks and required all students and coaches to quarantine. The Falcons resumed on-field activities Wednesday.

There were nine coronavirus cases among athletic programs at eight different high schools during the three-week period of fall sports practices in October and November. The county confirmed positive cases on the Broadneck High boys soccer and volleyball teams, Old Mill boys soccer, Northeast boys soccer, Glen Burnie football, South River football, Annapolis girls soccer, and Arundel High football.

Anne Arundel County Public Schools began fall sports practice Feb. 16 and games are scheduled to start March 23. In Howard and Carroll counties, competitions for a shortened fall sports season kicked off Friday night.

AACPS will have high school students return to school buildings for hybrid learning on Monday with grades 9 and 12, while grades 10 and 11 can resume in-person learning March 22.

Maryland health officials reported 932 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, with the state having now eclipsed 386,000 infections, and 11 new deaths. A record 50,484 doses of the coronavirus vaccine were administered across the state Friday.

Anne Arundel County reported 92 new coronavirus cases and one new death Saturday.