North Hills reports 11th covid case since Sunday, active total at 19

Two North Hills High School students and a student at the middle school have tested positive for covid-19, district officials announced.

The new cases bring the active total to 19 — 14 students and six staff members, according to an online tracker created by the district.

Because of the time frame for when the students and staff were last in the buildings and when they began experiencing symptoms, no changes to the current hybrid form of instruction are required.

The two high-schoolers who tested positive were last in the building Oct. 27. The middle-school student was in the building Nov. 4.

Of the 19 active cases in the district, 11 have been reported since Nov. 8. In addition to the most-recent cases, there were two cases reported on Sunday and six more on Monday.

A total of 32 people in the district — 20 students and a dozen staff members — have been infected with the coronavirus.

District officials said information about the cases it provided to the Allegheny County Health Department indicates that symptoms in all the new cases did not appear until several days after the person was last in a school building.

However, the health department is requiring some students to quarantine because they came into close contact with at least one of the infected students while they were outside the school building.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines close contact as being within 6 feet of someone who has covid-19 for 15 minutes or longer.

The Allegheny County Health Department recommends a quarantine period of 14 days, but notes that most infections occur within the first few days after exposure.

Students have the option of dropping in-person instruction at any time and attending classes remotely.