Georgia school district closes a second high school over COVID-19 outbreak

• The Cherokee County School District announced Wednesday that it is closing a second high school due to a COVID-19 outbreak.

• The school district, north of Atlanta, Georgia, has not required students or staff to wear masks.

• "As of this morning, the number of positive cases at [Woodstock High School] had increased to a total of 14," the school district announced, "with tests for another 15 students pending."

• As a result of the confirmed cases, 289 people at the school are now quarantined and, "should the pending tests prove positive, the total would significantly increase."

• A day earlier, the school district announced it was closing Etowah High School, with 59 people across the district having tested positive for COVID-19.

• Nearly 1,200 students and staff are now subject to mandatory two-week quarantines, NBC News reported.

When the Cherokee County School District started the school year, amid a pandemic, it did not require either students or teachers to wear a mask. Now it has shuttered its second high school in a week, with more than 1,200 pupils and staff now under quarantine.

The problems in Cherokee County, a 45-minute drive from Atlanta, Georgia, began earlier this month, when a second-grader tested positive for COVID-19 after attending their first day of school, as NBC News reported. That child, their teacher, and 20 classmates were ordered to quarantine for the next two weeks.

But the outbreak has become much worse. On Tuesday, the school district revealed that 59 people had now tested positive for COVID-19, with 925 students and staff subject to mandatory two-week quarantines. As a result, it said, Etowah High School would be closed until the end of the month.

By Wednesday, another school, Woodstock High, was shuttered, the quarantine total rising to just under 1,200, per NBC News.

"As of this morning, the number of positive cases at the school had increased to a total of 14," the school district announced, "with tests for another 15 students pending." As a result of the confirmed cases, 289 people at the school are now quarantined and, "should the pending tests prove positive, the total would significantly increase."

In-person classes are tentatively set to resume August 31. However, "We anticipate, as we have communicated throughout this process, there will be additional quarantines and school closures as we operate during this pandemic," the district said.

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