7,000 athletes, six positive COVID tests in four weeks of Fayette County workouts.

Three more Fayette County high school athletes have tested positive for COVID-19 after voluntary team workouts, and several people will be asked to quarantine as a result, a district spokeswoman said Friday.

On Wednesday, the district received information that one of the cheerleaders who had participated in conditioning at Bryan Station High School had received a positive test for COVID-19, said spokeswoman Lisa Deffendall.

On Friday, district officials learned two soccer players who are relatives and had participated in conditioning at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School tested positive for COVID-19, she said.

Since Fayette County Public Schools resumed on-campus conditioning June 29, more than 7,000 athletes have participated in workouts across the district’s six high schools. In four weeks, Deffendall said, six athletes and one adult reported that they have tested positive for COVID-19.

The teams previously affected included volleyball and girls’ soccer at Lafayette and football and cheerleading at Frederick Douglass, district officials said. Athletes at other high schools around Kentucky have also tested positive since workouts started.

In each situation in Fayette County, school and district staff strictly followed the Fayette County Return to Athletics Guidelines, which outlines the district’s response to a positive case, Deffendall said.

Steps include contact tracing, notification, quarantine requirements as appropriate, and deep cleaning.

Deffendall said having specific guidelines and clear safety expectations that include limiting the number of students who participate at the same time has been essential to curtailing any possible spread. The district’s guidelines mandate that teams be divided into small groups, or “pods” of 10 or fewer so that if a student testes positive, the district can place the pod on quarantine rather than the entire team.

At Bryan Station, fewer than 10 athletes were asked to quarantine. At Paul Laurence Dunbar, eight athletes and a coach will be asked to quarantine, Deffendall said.

At the recommendation of Superintendent Manny Caulk, the Fayette County Public Schools board on Thursday voted to start the school year with students solely learning from home. That decision will be re-examined in late September. Caulk cited a surge in cases in making his recommendation.

High school athletic teams across the state have been able to hold conditioning and skills drills since June 15, but the scheduled start of normal practices have been on hold during the pandemic. While golf is being allowed to proceed on schedule, practices for fall sports including football, soccer, volleyball and cross country remain in limbo.

The Kentucky High School Athletic Association Board of Control has scheduled a special meeting at 10 a.m. Tuesday to discuss options for possibly reopening. At its last meeting, Commissioner Julian Tackett said they were targeting Aug. 3 as the potential official start of practice for those sports, but it’s unclear if that date will hold given the increase in COVID cases Kentucky has seen in recent weeks.

Tackett stated this month that the KHSAA fully intends to have sports this fall as soon as pandemic conditions allow.

This story was originally published July 24, 2020 at 5:44 PM.