Calling school “the safest place for our kids to be,” Fayette County School Superintendent Jonathan Patterson said during Monday’s school board work session that mask requirements and other mitigation strategies seem to be reducing COVID-19 rates among students and staff. The system’s weekly report on Sept. 10 showed 58 students and staff had tested positive and another 71 were now in quarantine because of close contact in school with someone who tested positive. Patterson said that the new 149 total is well below the previous week’s report of 410.
Fayette began requiring face coverings at all schools as of Aug. 23 after rates quickly increased after school started, and also modified its quarantine rules to allow asymptomatic individuals who were exposed to the virus to remain in class. The mask requirement has been extended through the end of October, although Patterson said he is concerned about Fayette’s COVID rate going back up again. “We can’t keep kids in school at the degree that we are without the masks.”
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