COVID clusters reported at 25 Triangle schools, including in Wake, Durham and Orange
Updated Sept. 22 with DHHS removing Northwood High School from cluster report.
More than two dozen Triangle public and private schools are reporting COVID-19 clusters, as cases continue to rise statewide among young people.
Twenty-five schools have active COVID-19 clusters, according to the latest state Department of Health and Human Services’ report released Tuesday.
The report lists clusters at 12 schools in Wake County, four in Durham and two schools each in Franklin, Granville and Orange counties. Chatham, Harnett and Johnston counties each had one active cluster listed.
Schools are dealing with the delta variant, which is three times more contagious than the original coronavirus strain.
There’s a time lag between when cases are listed on the state report. Schools may currently have more or less COVID cases than are show by DHHS. A cluster is defined as five or more linked cases in a 14-day period.
Clusters in multiple area schools
In the Wake County school system, clusters were reported at Athens Drive High, Holly Grove Elementary, Lake Myra Elementary, Knightdale High, Neuse River Middle, Sanderson High, Southeast Raleigh High and Vandora Springs Elementary.
Sanderson High has the most cases of any school in the district on the report at 21. The only other district school in the report that was listed with more than 10 cases was Neuse River Middle at 16.
Three Wake County charter schools are on the state report. Cardinal Charter Academy at Wendell Falls is listed with 20 cases and Endeavor Charter School at 19 cases. East Wake Academy has six cases listed.
The report also shows ongoing clusters at Bethesda Elementary, Eno Valley Elementary, Pearsontown Elementary and Rogers-Herr Middle in Durham Public Schools.
Clusters were also shown at Crosscreek Charter and Franklinton Middle in Franklin County; Falls Lake Academy and JF Webb High in Granville County; and Central Elementary and Frank Porter Graham in Orange County.
Clusters were also found at Chatham Central High in Chatham County, Overhills High in Harnett County and Corinth Holders High in Johnston County.
DHHS had also listed Northwood High in Chatham County as having a cluster before the school was removed from the report on Wednesday. Mike Zelek, Chatham County’s public health director, said Wednesday that the cluster information had been mistakenly reported to DHHS.
The state report lists clusters at Chatham Central High School and Northwood High in Chatham County. The Chatham County school system says there is no cluster at Northwood and that the report is incorrect.
This story was originally published September 21, 2021 at 4:52 PM.
