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Seven more COVID-19 cases among students or staff members at Henrico schools have resulted in 89 people entering quarantine – most because of two cases involving close contacts in extracurricular or sports activities at Varina High School (53 people quarantining) and Hermitage High School (33), according to data from Henrico County Public Schools.
One other new case was reported at Varina High but required only one person to quarantine. One case at Varina Elementary sent two people to quarantine, but two cases at Donahoe Elementary and one case at Rolfe Middle didn't require anyone to quarantine.
To date, since schools began a staggered in-person reopening Feb. 22, that's 697 people who have had to enter quarantine. Many have since returned to school, and school data shows that only twice has a case resulted in an outbreak in a school – once at Ridge Elementary and once at Harvie Elementary. The others they believe occurred outside of school and required quarantine of others simply for precaution.
“In other words, there have been no additional positive cases as a result of a first positive case at school or in sports,” Henrico Schools spokesman Andy Jenks said. “We feel that means the risk-mitigating strategies such as mask-wearing, quarantine, cleaning and disinfecting, respiratory etiquette, etc., are working. That’s a tremendous accomplishment at the moment, but we must remain vigilant in order to have the in-person learning and the sports seasons that we all want to have.”
