Norwin covid-19 cases piling up
The covid-19 cases in the Norwin School District keep piling up.
The school district on Tuesday said that a Norwin Online Academy student and a high school employee have notified the school officials that they recently tested positive for the coronavirus.
The online academy students take courses through remote instruction, and the high school was closed on Monday because of an outbreak of covid-19 cases last week. Additional sanitization was not necessary, the district said, and all buildings will be open for staff members Wednesday.
The school nurse completed contact tracing under the direction of the state Department of Health. Norwin is monitoring this situation and the school district said it will notify staff and families if other actions are needed.
On Monday, Norwin announced that a middle school staff member and a high school student have tested positive for coronavirus. More than 32 students and staff have tested positive for coronavirus since school opened on Aug. 31.
The news that Norwin has been notified this week that two employees and two students the past two days have tested positive for coronavirus comes as Superintendent Jeff Taylor has recommended that the school district continue instructing students in the same hybrid method it has implemented since school began on Aug. 31.
That plan uses two days of in-school instruction for half of the students on Mondays and Tuesdays, followed by a virtual instruction for everyone on Wednesday and two days of in-class instruction for the remainder of the students.
Taylor had previously planned to have all students return to class as of Nov. 18. But Taylor said there were too many covid-19 cases and hundreds of students and staff who had to be quarantined because of possible contact with someone who might have tested positive for coronavirus.
The additional covid-19 cases in the school district coincide with state health department data showing that the number of covid-19 cases increased by almost 10% in the week from Nov. 2 to 9, which came on the heels of a 20% increase in cases the last week of October.
Joe Napsha is a TribLive reporter covering Irwin, North Huntingdon and the Norwin School District. He also writes about business issues. He grew up on Neville Island and has worked at the Trib since the early 1980s. He can be reached at jnapsha@triblive.com.
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