“Steep rise” in Oconee School COVID cases

“We are currently facing a steep rise in cases” is the notation on the COVID-19 tracking page kept by Oconee public schools.  In the last seven days, there have been a total of 163 cases in the county’s public schools. The notation reads, “We are working to add data as fast as possible but may be 3 to 4 days behind.”  Walhalla High School has been especially hit hard, with a total of 53 cases, 49 of which are students.  There have also been several “closures” which Jennifer Dodd, district spokeswoman, described this way:  “These are classrooms, sports teams, extracurricular (like band or chorus), or even grade levels that we have moved to quarantine/distance learning for a period of 10 days.  For example, we may ‘close’ a high school math class due to a certain number of positive cases among students in that class.  Those students would be ‘quarantined’ for a period of 10 days”.