Richland 1 just had more students testing positive for COVID than all of last school year

Richland 1 school district is dealing with more COVID-19 cases now than at any other point in the pandemic.

As of Friday, Jan. 7, Richland 1 reported 391 positive student cases and 93 employee cases, according to the district’s online dashboard. By Monday, that number was down to 365 student positives. However, the number of employees testing positive increased to 99.

To put that number in perspective, more students were COVID positive in Richland 1 on Friday than during the entirety of the 2020-2021 school year, in which Richland 1 had a total of 383 cases. Before Friday, Richland 1 had not seen more than 200 active cases at a given time, according to the online dashboard.

Richland 1 spokeswoman Angela Crosland confirmed Friday’s case count was a record high for the district. However, she noted that at the same time last year, students were learning virtually.

Cases climbed at Richland 1 throughout last week. On Monday, Jan. 3, Richland 1 began the semester with roughly 100 cases. Tuesday, that number climbed to around 200. Wednesday it climbed to around 300, according to the Richland 1 COVID-19 dashboard.

Cases are highest at Richland 1’s elementary schools, which have 210 positive students. Middle schools have the fewest amount of cases with 56 and high schools have 98 cases, according to Richland 1’s dashboard.

Dreher High had the highest number of cases, with 49 students testing positive. Eau Claire High had the second highest number of cases, 20. Satchel Ford Elementary had the most employees test positive, 7, according to the district’s dashboard.

Throughout the district, 870 students are quarantined and 55 employees are quarantined, according to the dashboard.

While the number of students who are actively positive has decreased since Friday, the number of students quarantined has increased. Friday, 870 students were quarantined, and by Monday that number increased to 1,198, according to the dashboard.

The surge in cases follows skyrocketing cases throughout the state. In two weeks, South Carolina broke the record for number of COVID-19 cases four times, The State reported previously.

Richland 1 is also far from the first school district to feel the effects of skyrocketing case numbers. Surging case numbers among employees in Lexington 1 forced River Bluff High School to go virtual-only until Tuesday, Jan. 18, The State reported previously.

As of Jan. 7, Lexington 1, a district of 27,000 students, has 407 student positive cases and 131 employee positives, according to the district’s online dashboard. While Lexington 1 has more student cases, Richland 1, a district of roughly 22,000, has a higher percentage of students testing positive.

A few days before the temporary switch to virtual-only at River Bluff, Lexington 1 had announced it saw the highest number of cases since the beginning of the pandemic.

This story was originally published January 11, 2022 at 12:22 PM.