HOWARD — East Knox Local Schools has announced it will alter its COVID-19 protocols three days into the school year, following an outbreak within the district.
Superintendent Steve Larcomb posted on Facebook Thursday that effective Friday morning, the district will “(return) to the indoor mask rules that were in effect during the 2020-2021 school year.”
“Anyone entering an East Knox building is required to wear a mask due to rapidly rising quarantine rates amongst our students and staff,” he continued. “Masks will continue to be strongly encouraged at outdoor events, but will not be required at this time.”
East Knox Local Schools began the year with a mask-optional policy, as did the rest of Knox County’s K-12 districts. The county has seen a surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations over the last month, as the highly contagious delta variant has taken hold.
It didn’t take long for the virus to reach East Knox, which began school Tuesday.
“Just this morning alone, East Knox staff notified the parents of over 15 students to come pick up their quarantined student due to close contact with someone testing positive,” Larcomb said in the post, “and the list has grown since then.”
It’s unclear how many students are infected and how many have been contact-traced due to the outbreak. Knox County deputy health commissioner Zach Green said Friday morning that Knox Public Health had not received the final report of confirmed cases from the Ohio Disease Reporting System, which tracks lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases for health agencies statewide.
“The numbers are still coming in,” Green said.
He and Larcomb did say Friday morning, however, that there are currently four positive cases within the district – three students and an elementary school teacher. Two of the students attend elementary school and one is in junior/senior high.
There have been 22 students identified as close contacts as a result of the outbreak, Larcomb said. All are currently following quarantine protocols.
Larcomb said the district chose to implement the universal masking policy following “further guidance from Knox Public Health” on Thursday morning, as the details of the outbreak became clear.
Knox Public Health urged districts Aug. 6 to implement universal masking to begin the school year, given the policy’s apparent effectiveness last year (East Knox Local Schools saw 20 total cases).
“I wrote in earlier communications this month that East Knox would adjust COVID protocols as needed. Unfortunately, we are already at that point after three instructional days …” Larcomb wrote Thursday.
“We will continue to evaluate the situation and make further adjustments either way as the data leads us.”
This is a developing story. It will be updated as more information becomes available.
