GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — Sixty players and 10 coaches from the Berkmar High School varsity football team are in quarantine after one of the players tested positive for COVID-19.
The team’s first two games have been canceled.
Gwinnett County Public Schools administrators say a parent of the player called the school early Monday morning to report that the student was sick and tested positive.
Berkmar’s Health Resources Team kicked into action, and after contract tracing, sent the team and coaches home.
Channel 2’s Gwinnett County Bureau Chief Tony Thomas broke the story and asked student Moises Ojeda if teachers mentioned the quarantine at school.
“No, but I heard from other people,” Ojeda said. “I think it’s safe because they are all in quarantine like they should be. There’s a lot of people here.”
Gwinnett Schools district spokesperson Sloan Roach said the 60 players will take digital classes from home for the next two weeks. The coaches, who are all district employees, will work from home.
“To my knowledge, there are no other symptoms among those folks,” Roach told Thomas.
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Only about half of the youngest grades in each school building are taking in person classes right now. More students begin in-person learning on Wednesday.
By mid-September, Gwinnett hopes to have in person learning for any student who wants it. Students can opt for digital learning and still participate in extra curricular activities.
Roach said overall, the district’s COVID-19 related cases and quarantines are still relatively low.
With the team quarantine, Gwinnett schools now report 639 COVID-19 quarantines across the district. That includes 16 positive cases and 183 suspected cases. The rest were in close contact to those.
Of all those quarantined, 249, including four positive cases, are new in the last 24 hours.
“When you look at that total group of students that have been affected in some way, that’s 1.3% of the total number of students currently attending our schools,” Roach said. “This is to be expected when you look at the community spread in Gwinnett.”
Berkmar’s football game against Best Academy scheduled for Friday has been canceled. The teams next game against Duluth is off for now, but administrators hope to reschedule it at a later date.