Three Wake high schools report coronavirus cases involving athletic departments
Three coronavirus infections have been reported at three Wake County high schools, according to messages posted on the school websites.
Fuquay-Varina High School, Heritage High School in Wake Forest and Panther Creek High School in Cary have each reported a confirmed case of the virus involving individuals associated with their athletic departments. Nearly identical messages were sent to each of the school communities on Tuesday.
- Letter to Fuquay-Varina High School families
- Letter to Heritage High School families
- Letter to Panther Creek High School families
District officials wouldn't say whether the cases involve student-athletes or adults, citing privacy. They did say the cases aren't connected to each other.
The person who tested positive at Fuquay-Varina High was last on campus on Oct. 20, while the person at Panther Creek High who tested positive was last on campus on Oct. 21. The person at Heritage High who tested positive was last on campus on Oct. 22.
"I am not surprised we are seeing some cases of COVID in schools while our rates in the community are higher than we like," said Dr. Charlene Wong, a pediatrician and a health services researcher with Duke University's Margolis Center for Health Policy.
"The risk of kids in schools is not going to be zero, and what we can do to try to reduce that risk is get our rates in the community as low as possible," Wong said.
Wake County school board Chairman Keith Sutton said completely containing the virus is almost impossible, and district administrators are following procedures after the cases came to light, including contacting people who may have been exposed to the infected person and cleaning areas of the school they may have visited.
The district said people do not need to take action unless they are contacted by the health department.
“Follow the guidelines given by the schools, who are working very close with public health and clinical experts to determine what the next best steps are,” Wong said.
The school district allowed volleyball and cross country workouts to begin on Oct. 1 after all sports were suspended in March at the beginning of the pandemic. Swimming and diving, basketball and cheerleading workouts began on Oct. 19. No other sports are currently holding workouts in Wake County.
The North Carolina High School Athletic Association is set to begin regular season tryouts and practices for volleyball and cross country on Nov. 4.
In addition to posts on the websites of the schools involved, the district also created a dashboard to keep the public updated on reported cases. The dashboard was blank on Wednesday afternoon; according to the website, which is updated weekly, data is pending.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, the state's second-biggest system behind Wake County, cases number are broken down online, including the number of students and staff involved.
The Johnston County School District has a similar amount of information, including which grade levels are affected by virus cases, and Cumberland County Schools has data laid out by individual school.
Wake County school board member Jim Martin said the case numbers could continue to grow.
"If we don’t adhere to the plan where people are wearing a mask and keeping appropriate distance, we are going to see infection rates increase and continue,” Martin said.
