End of week report: Tampa Bay Schools see rise in COVID-19 cases, quarantines

School reopening has not become the major virus spreading event some feared. Image via AP.

As the school week came to an end in the Tampa Bay area, coronavirus cases among three county districts appear to be rising.

The Hillsborough County School District still doesn’t have a public list providing the number of quarantined individuals, Pasco County had to quarantine 119 students in one high school and Pinellas has yet to provide a Friday report.

Here’s the breakdown:

On Friday, Pasco County saw its second-highest number of daily cases since school started on Aug. 24 — five students and one staff member tested positive. However, this day had the highest impact number, reporting the 119 students and 10 staff members had to be quarantined following a positive student case at Zephyrhills High School.

So far, the district has reported 20 student cases and five staff cases but has had to quarantine 499 students and 54 employees. Just two days ago, those numbers were 212 and 33, respectively.

Hillsborough County School District saw 39 cases from teachers and students in its first week of brick-and-mortar classes. The list is made up of 22 student cases and 17 employee cases. Although the dashboard is updated each hour, according to the site, it does not reveal the number of individuals who were impacted through quarantine requirements.

The individuals are quarantined based on interaction and vicinity between the person who tested positive, for example, if they shared a class.

Pinellas County, which has been reporting quarantines by the number of affected classrooms and buses, has yet to report Friday case numbers. This week, the district saw 12 employees and only seven students who reported positive, and have had to quarantine 22 classrooms and one bus.

At an average of 10 students per class, that means some 420 students may currently be quarantined. That estimate doesn’t include bus quarantines, of which there has been at least one.

Superintendent Michael Grego said during a School Board meeting last week that buses average about 20 students each. The district only began reporting bus quarantines this week.