Norwin reports 12 more cases of coronavirus; closing in on 100

Twelve more students and staff members at Norwin have tested positive for coronavirus, the school district said Tuesday, which raises the total number of cases since school began to 93.

The spike in numbers reported since the holiday weekend occurs as the district is instructing all 5,300 students remotely this week because of the increase of cases and Westmoreland County being in the substantial level for community transmission of the virus.

The district said those testing positive include two high school students and one staff member, two middle school students and an employee there, three employees at Hillcrest Intermediate School, and two Sunset Valley Elementary students and an employee there.

The state Department of Health was consulted and contact tracing is being conducted for the cases in which close contact at school was reported, the district said.

All of the affected school buildings were disinfected before employees returned to work Tuesday.

Norwin said it has 260 students and staff in quarantine. As of last week, district officials had maintained that none of the students and staff who tested positive for the virus were infected in school.

Superintendent Jeff Taylor said last week he intends to announce on Friday whether Norwin will return to a hybrid model of instruction, where all students receive two days of in-school instruction and three days of remote learning. Norwin would have to inform the state Department of Education on Friday if it wants students to return to the school next week.

Taylor said he would take into account several factors regarding the virus in the Norwin community when deciding whether to return to hybrid instruction.

There was an 18% increase in the number of cases in North Huntingdon-Irwin-North Irwin area from Nov. 23 to 30, according to health department data.