Release COVID-19 case counts by school district, SC Gov. McMaster tells DHEC
As some students head back to school this month, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster wants the state’s public health agency to publicly release daily statistics on how many students and staff members are testing positive for COVID-19.
McMaster said the numbers are in the public’s interest and asked the state’s Department of Health and Environmental Control to start a process to release the counts every day.
“I ask that the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control ... begin developing a process to collect, compile and disclose information regarding confirmed COVID-19 cases among students and staff in every school district in the state,” McMaster wrote in his Aug. 10 letter to Mark Elam, DHEC board chairman.
“It is my understanding that this information can be collected in a confidential manner and de-identified at both the school and school-district level. To the extent that this non-identifying information can be provided in a format that is consistent with state and federal privacy laws, I ask that DHEC make these figures available to the public on a daily basis.”
In response, a DHEC spokesperson said the agency intends to start work on a process that’ll fulfill McMaster’s request.
On Monday, the agency released an updated school exclusion list, adding COVID-19 among diseases schools must report to the department. Any cases must be reported within 24 hours, according to the new rules.
“DHEC remains committed to providing meaningful and actionable data in a way that is both transparent for the public and also protective of an individual’s privacy,” the spokesperson said.
South Carolina as of Monday has logged more than 100,000 positive cases of COVID-19 since March.
Nearly 2,000 South Carolinians have died as a result of the virus.
The governor last month called on South Carolina school districts to give parents the option of sending their child back to school five days a week, drawing criticism from many teachers and their advocates who worried that in-person instruction would only exacerbate the state’s coronanvirus outbreak.
Critics have pointed to examples out of neighboring state Georgia, where hundreds of teachers ahead of their return have tested positive for COVID-19. In another example, a high school in Georgia’s Paulding County went viral on the internet after students posted photos of packed hallways at a local high school, where many students were seen without masks.
That school announced it would temporarily close and switch to virtual learning after several students tested positive.
This story was originally published August 10, 2020 at 10:23 AM.
