More than 600 students quarantined since Sunday in Fayette; COVID dashboard back up

After being shut down due to an exponential increase in COVID-19 cases, the Fayette school COVID-19 dashboard was back up Monday, showing 399 new student quarantines Sunday and 213 Monday.

The dashboard showed 3 new student COVID cases and 2 new staff COVID cases on Sunday and on Monday, 16 new positive student cases, 6 new positive staff cases, and 1 new staff quarantine.

More than 300 students alone were quarantined last week at Jessie Clark Middle School. On Friday, the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department showed that there were 208 positive COVID-19 cases related to the Fayette County Public Schools.

The onset of symptoms or test date for those cases ranged from Aug. 7 through Aug. 18. The data was current through Aug. 19.

Fayette County Public Schools board chairman Tyler Murphy said in a Facebook post that the enrollment window for the Virtual Learning Academy has closed and there are limited spaces due to staffing, but there are still some individual considerations being made for students who may be medically fragile due to the rapid change in COVID-19 conditions as a result of the Delta variant.

Murphy said families should contact their schools to discuss their unique situation and options.

Murphy tested positive for COVID-19 last weekend. He is in isolation but said he is feeling fine.