The entire Hopkinsville High School girls soccer team and the school’s cheerleading squad have been given recommendations to quarantine at home after several students tested positive for COVID-19, district communications director John Rittenhouse said in a news release Thursday afternoon.
They will not attend school in-person during the quarantine period, he added.
The district also announced Friday’s football game between Hopkinsville and Christian County high schools has been postponed because some players are quarantined as well.
The district’s news releases did not specify how many students involved in the athletic programs had tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. In response to questions from Hoptown Chronicle, Rittenhouse said one Hopkinsville girls soccer player, four Hopkinsville High cheerleaders and one Christian County High School football player had tested positive.
However, the district’s COVID Data Dashboard listed 24 active cases in the district and 188 students and staff combined in quarantine. On Tuesday, there were 10 positive cases and 68 in quarantine. The dashboard is slated to be updated every Tuesday and Thursday.
Christian County Public Schools returned to in-person instruction on Sept. 8, about three weeks earlier that Gov. Andy Beshear recommended for all districts in the state. Superintendent Chris Bentzel recommended students return to classes while also offering a Virtual Learning Academy for all students whose parents did not want their children to return to a school setting yet.
In a news conference Tuesday, Bentzel went over the district’s coronavirus numbers and said he believed the schools were safe. He noted that only four of the 10 positive cases were among people who had been in schools. Since Tuesday, the number of people in the district under quarantine has doubled, while the number of positive cases has grown from 10 to 24.
Those increases coincide with a significant spike in local coronavirus cases reported by the Christian County Health Department.
The county had 36 new cases and one death confirmed Thursday. It was the second-largest single-day increase locally. Among people in the youth category, the number of active cases increased from 23 on Wednesday to 38.
Since the pandemic began, 1,145 cases have been confirmed in Christian County. The total includes 171 active cases and 956 classified as recovered. There have been 18 deaths, include a 96-year-old man whose death was confirmed Thursday.
The number of active cases by age group are:
- Youth (0-21): 38
- Young Adult-Middle Age (22-59): 84
- Older Adult (60-84): 35
- Elderly (85+): 14
In the district news release, Bentzel said the HHS girls soccer and cheerleading activities are suspended until further notice but added the students would be able to return to “regular season play” after they clear quarantine.
Tickets sold for the Friday football game will be accepted when the game is rescheduled.
In addition to the school cases, one central office staff member tested positive and three staffers are quarantined.
The superintendent is scheduled to give an update on the district’s return to in-person instruction as a Board of Education meeting scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday. The public may watch a livestream of the meeting on the district’s website.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
