Fayette County Schools continue to see rise in COVID-19 cases, quarantines

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) – Fayette County Public Schools (FCPS) are following the local, state and national trend of rising COVID-19 cases and quarantines among students and teachers.

According to the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department, there are currently 208 positive coronavirus cases in FCPS.  Of those, 181 are students and 27 staff members.

The onset of symptoms or test date ranges from Aug. 7-18.  The current data is through Aug. 19.

Of the current cases, 110 are ages 5-to-11 and 71 are ages 12-to-18, according to the health department.  Students under the age of 11 are still not eligible for COVID-19 vaccine.

The coronavirus has hit Jessie Clark Middle School hard.  The school district says it received reports of 10 students and four staff testing positive since the first day of school, which was Aug. 11.  Those 14 cases resulted in 304 students being quarantined, according to the district.  All but 71 of those students will be able to return to school Aug. 23 or 24, according to the district.  The school is scheduled to undergo a deep cleaning on Saturday, Aug. 21, according to the district.

Superintendent Demetrus Liggins says cases and quarantines have exponentially increased in the school district over the past week, so the school system temporarily took down its COVID-19 dashboard in order to present more accurate data.  The dashboard is expected to be back up on Monday, Aug. 23, according to the district.

Here is a statement from FCPS Spokeswoman Lisa Deffendall:

Throughout the pandemic, Fayette County Public Schools has maintained a commitment to be open and honest with students, staff, families, and community-at-large about the impact of COVID-19 on our schools.

The district has developed robust contact tracing, isolation and quarantine protocols to mitigate the potential spread of the virus, and works closely with the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department to ensure we have accurate information about cases and quarantines among students and employees.

The COVID-19 Dashboard was designed to include data collected by both the FCPS COVID-19 call center and the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department so that our community has a complete picture of the landscape surrounding the virus.

Due to the exponentially increasing number of cases and quarantines in the Fayette County community over the past week, our existing staff was unable to log the individual school quarantines into the database in a timely manner.

Rather than provide incomplete information, we took down the dashboard so that we could correct the issue. We are currently restructuring our staff and expect to have our data up-to-date and be able to relaunch the COVID-19 Dashboard on Monday, August 23.

We have reviewed written documentation and can share that at Jessie Clark Middle School, we have received reports of 10 students and four staff testing positive for COVID-19 since the first day of school. Those 14 cases have led to quarantines for 304 students. All but 71 of those students will be able to return to school next week Monday or Tuesday. The school is undergoing a deep cleaning tomorrow.

Schools must develop instructional plans that address the possibility of quarantines for individual students, groups of students from the same class, or entire classrooms of students. This may be a mix of virtual instruction, synchronous learning, individual assignments, asynchronous learning and online programs and platforms.

For the latest news, information and updates from FCPS, click here.