Six more positive covid cases have been reported in the North Hills School District on Monday, according to officials.
The new cases bring the active total to 18 — 12 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 hybrid form of instruction being used are required.
The high school temporarily switched to online-only instruction last week after the covid cases were detected.
Three of the new cases are at the middle school, where one student was last in the building on Oct. 27, and two others were there on Oct. 30.
One student at Ross Elementary who was last in school on Oct. 30 is presumed positive for covid, according to the district.
A student who was in McIntyre Elementary on Nov. 4 also is among the most recent cases and a teacher who was last at the high school on Nov. 5 received a positive test result.
District officials said information about the cases it provided to the Allegheny County Health Department indicate that symptoms in all the new cases did not appear until several days after the person was last in a school building.
However, some district students will be required to quarantine because they came into close contact with at least one of the students who are infected 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 attend classes remotely.
