Norwin reports 3 more covid-19 cases at high school, plus online student

Norwin is starting the week with another round of covid-19 cases at its high school, as three more students tested positive for the virus — as did a fourth student taking classes though Norwin Online Academy, the district said Monday.

The high school building will remain open for classes on Tuesday and more sanitizing is not necessary, the district said in a statement.

The state Department of Health, in coordination with the school nurses, is conducting the contact tracing. Parents of students who have been identified as having close contact with those who tested positive for the virus will be notified in an email, the district said.

The announcement comes on the heels of the district revealing last week that a high school student tested positive Nov. 12. A Norwin Online Academy student and a high school employee notified school officials on Nov. 9 they had tested positive for the coronavirus. The district has had 51 students and staff who have tested positive for the virus since school started on Aug. 31, but none have been found to have been infected in school, Superintendent Jeff Taylor said Monday.

Taylor said that 512 students and 38 employees have been quarantined this school year, some for 14 days and others for as long as 24 days, Taylor said. The quarantining is determined by the state Department of Health, Taylor said.

At the same time, the health department said on Monday that Westmoreland County had moved back into the category of being a substantial risk for spreading the disease. Westmoreland had been operating under a “moderate” risk for community transmission of the virus, based on the state’s health department data on its Early Warning Monitoring System.

Taylor had anticipated fully reopening the schools to five-day-week in-class instruction on Nov. 18, but told the board last week that with the increase in virus cases, full-time instruction is postponed indefinitely.