102 Founders Court • Orangeburg, SC 29118

Phone: 803.534.5454

Tuesday, August 31, 2021

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Anna Bowers
Communications and Community Relations Specialist
anna.bowers@ocsdsc.org

115 STUDENTS & EMPLOYEES COVID-19 POSITIVE;

95% ELECTING TO WEAR FACE COVERINGS

Orangeburg County School District recently wrapped up the second week of school with 95% of
students heeding public health recommendations to wear a face covering while indoors.

“The CDC is continuing to recommend extra safety precautions. We need to continue to follow
these and encourage them around the district,” District Superintendent Dr. Shawn Foster
commented. “The safety and health of our students and staff is top priority. We need to do
what we can in order to limit the risk of exposure and keep our community safe.”

With total enrollment across the District of 10,833 students, nearly 10,250 are consistently
electing to wear masks. Each and every student is wearing a mask at Bethune-Bowman
Elementary, Bethune-Bowman
Middle/High, Brookdale Elementary,
Clark Middle, Elloree Elementary,
Howard Middle, Hunter-Kinard-Tyler
Elementary, Hunter-Kinard
Middle/High, Marshall Elementary,
Mellichamp Elementary, OCSD
Alternative Program, Rivelon
Elementary, Vance-Providence
Elementary, and Whittaker Elementary.
And, on several other campuses, you’ll
find that there are five students or less
without a face covering. Schools with
five or less students wearing a mask
include, Holly Hill Elementary, Holly Hill
Roberts Middle, Lake Marion High &
Technology, Sheridan Elementary, and
St. James Gaillard Elementary.
Since the start of the new school year (August 16, 2021), the number of positive student cases
are at 89. Seventeen students received positive COVID-19 test results the first week back, and
an additional 72 cases were reported the second week, August 23-27, 2021.

School nurses and administrators are tracking positive cases of COVID-19 and are identifying
individuals who may have been in close proximity to the positive case during their contagious
period, beginning up to 48 hours prior to the onset of symptoms. Any individual within DHEC’s
definition of close contact for 15 cumulative minutes is required to quarantine, unless an
exemption is requested due to their full vaccination status or because they have received a
positive COVID-19 diagnosis within the last 90 days.

District wide, 567 students have been quarantined since the start of the new school year.
Employee quarantines through Friday, August 27, totaled 66, with 26 positive for the virus and
an additional 40 identified as close contacts and required to quarantine.

As coronavirus numbers increase throughout the state, South Carolina’s State Department of
Education is enforcing again the CDC’s order requiring the use of face coverings by students and
staff on state owned and operated school buses. Since the much debated “Mask Mandate
Prohibition” (Proviso 1.108) did not extend to school buses, our District was already requiring
face coverings on school buses.

“We remain committed to ensuring the safest possible environment for students and staff to
the fullest extent practical for teaching, learning and school operations and as allowable under
the law,” Foster explained. “We will continue to take as many safety precautions as possible
while also urging all students, staff, and parents to do the same.”

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