Norwin schools see 6 more coronavirus cases
The coronavirus cases in Norwin School District continue to mount, with the school reporting Wednesday it had learned that three staff members and three students have tested positive for the virus.
One staff member each at the high school, middle school and Hillcrest Intermediate School informed the district they tested positive, while two high school students and a Stewartsville Elementary School student also tested positive or the virus, Norwin said.
The students and staff members will not return to school until they have completed isolation procedures, the district said in a statement.
The state Department of Health, in coordination with the school nurses, is conducting contact tracing. The schools will be sanitized before students and staff return to the building on Thursday. In the district’s hybrid form of instruction, only about one-half of the district’s 5,300 students are in the schools on Thursdays.
Superintendent Jeff Taylor told the school board Monday the district had 530 students and staff spend either 14 days or as much as 24 days in quarantine this year.
The district has had difficulty finding substitute teachers and paraprofessionals to fill in for those employees who are in quarantine, Taylor said. He pointed out that some school districts in Southwestern Pennsylvania have had to close and Norwin is coming close to the same situation.
The contact tracing that had been conducted up until Monday found that none of the 51 persons who tested positive for coronavirus caught it in school, Taylor said.
With the additional cases this week, Norwin has had about 60 students and staff test positive, affecting all the buildings. The district has had to close some schools for a few days to allow for deep cleaning after cases were discovered.
In the district’s three Westmoreland County municipalities — North Huntingdon, Irwin and North Irwin — cases have risen from Nov. 9 to 16 by about 22%, according to state health department data. Norwin also serves 18 properties in Allegheny County.
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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