COLUMBIA, S.C. — The one-two punch of COVID and flu cases has decimated one high school football team, forcing the cancellation of a Friday night game.
Richland School District Two announced Friday morning that the night contest between Spring Valley and White Knoll high schools has been canceled because the Spring Valley varsity football team has had a surge of COVID cases and other illnesses. District spokeswoman says that tonight's game is canceled for the safety of all involved and due to the lack of players.
The district also canceled Spring Valley's junior varsity game on Thursday for the same reasons.
Richland Two spokesman Greg Turchetta said, "As far as operations, last week we started more frequent cleanings of touchpoints and the use of electrostatic sprayers again. Spring Valley's football game is our first impact on operations this school year."
News19 has contacted area school districts, asking if there has been a rise in reported cases of COVID and flu and what measures are in schools today that might help stop the spread of the illnesses. We will update this story as information becomes available.
Richland One: Coordinator of Nursing Services for Richland One, Eunice Jones responds: When tracking COVID and flu cases, we follow DHEC guidelines for outbreaks and follow DHEC’s school exclusion list for both. The district has not seen a rise in the number of cases and there has been no impact on the day-to-day teacher/student population. The district has an availability of facemasks, promotes good hand hygiene and encourages all to stay home when they are sick.
Lexington 1: Lexington One tracks COVID and flu cases by asking families to report both illnesses to their schools. Using DHEC's guidelines, Lexington One monitors absentee rates and parent reports of COVID-19 and flu in students and staff to help identify potential outbreaks. Just like many school districts around the state, Lexington One has seen a slight rise in illnesses. Right now, day-to-day operations are not being impacted.
Lexington One continues to emphasize healthy habits to students and staff to help prevent the spread of germs, like handwashing, covering the mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing, and staying home when sick. The district also utilizes portable air purifiers in our health rooms and in classrooms with our most medically fragile students to help reduce respiratory illness transmission.
Lexington 2: Some of the health measures the district has in place include:
- Continue protocols for cleaning and disinfecting school facilities, buses, and high-touch areas;
- Ensure classrooms, restrooms, cafeterias, hallways, offices and other spaces are cleaned each school day;
- Misting machines are available for use in classrooms, public areas, and buses as needed when positive cases are reported;
- Provide cleaning and disinfecting products in classrooms, as requested; hand sanitizer; stations in high-traffic areas of school buildings;
- Use signage to reinforce healthy habits, such as frequent hand-washing;
- Continue use of technology conferencing as an option for meetings;
- Keep individuals exhibiting COVID-like symptoms away from others as much as possible, until they are able to go home;
- Offer free take-home COVID tests, as available, for symptomatic students and staff;
- Offer bottle-filling stations as an alternative to water fountains.
Lex-Rich 5: Hand sanitizer is available to all staff and students. We are monitoring cases and will report any outbreaks to SCDHEC per the school exclusion list.
Clarendon County School District: Our district tracks COVID and Flu cases through our school nurses and district nurse supervisor. The name of the students and school is sent to them for tracking purposes as there has been a rise in cases in our district and county as a whole. There has been no vital impact on our day-to-day operations with teachers and students, as we have had great luck with substitutes through Kelly Services. As a 1:1 district, students have devices and can continue with their learning at home through Google Classroom to ensure that they continue to reach academic success. In our schools, we have UV lights in classrooms to fight bacteria and illnesses and continual cleaning by our custodial staff.
Fairfield County Schools: The district is tracking cases, and there has been a slight uptick in COVID-19 cases. They also suspect an uptick in flu cases. So far, the increase in cases has not impacted day-to-day operations, and the district is implementing the procedures previously in place during the initial COVID-19 outbreak (Sanitizing surfacing, masking (although not mandatory), testing, etc.).