School athletes and students testing positive in Tri-Cities

The two Kamiakin High soccer players are among seven Kennewick students who reported testing positive for COVID-19 this week.

This comes as the Columbia School District in Burbank announced four students have contracted the virus.

The Kennewick athletes caught COVID during a soccer tournament outside of the county.

When people travel to different counties, they increase the possibility that they will come in contact with someone with COVID, said Nikki Ostergaard with the Benton Franklin Health District.

“The message that we’re trying to get out is that the choices that they make outside of school are impacting our ability to open schools,” she said.

A small group of the students’ teammates have since been quarantined. None are showing symptoms.

The cases come during one of the busiest weeks for COVID case reported in the Kennewick School District, which has returned its elementary students to partial in-person learning but not yet middle and high schoolers.

Since Nov. 2, 10 students and one employee were added to list of people in the district with the virus, bringing the total case count for the school year to 38.

So far, Benton and Franklin Health District has not seen students or teachers pass the disease to others inside the schools. This includes private schools that have been open since the start of the school year.

Burbank

On Wednesday, Burbank Superintendent Todd Hilberg posted a letter to parents on the website about the four students in the Columbia School District who had contracted the virus.

They were the first known students to get sick at the district, which is one of the first in the Tri-Cities to return all students to in-person learning starting in late October.

The letter didn’t say if the cases were related, the last time the students were in classrooms or if they attended the same schools, which are in Walla Walla County.

District officials said the students didn’t have any close contact with students or teachers while they were contagious. He said the precautions they are taking are working to stop the spread of the disease.

“We are fortunate that these have been our first positive cases via students to date,” Hilberg said.

While Walla Walla County is seeing a steep climb in cases, Burbank and Wallula has seen 87 of the more than 1,300 cases in the county since the start of the pandemic. The area saw 21 of those in the last two weeks.

When schools follow screening processes, maintain 6-foot separations, promote hand-washing, the risk of students and staff catching COVID in the school isn’t any greater than catching it in the community at large, according to Benton Franklin Health Officer Dr. Amy Person.

The Burbank superintendent pointed to social and family gatherings driving the increased rates of transmission.

“Schools around us are delaying re-entry plans or even moving backwards due to specific circumstances in their community,” he said. “We will continue to maintain our current hybrid model provided that we can maintain on-site staffing or the experts advise us otherwise.”

Burbank parents on Facebook thanked Hilberg for the information.

Climbing cases

The new cases come as school districts around the area are wrestling with when to bring students back to middle and high schools.

Pasco is eyeing a Dec. 3 start for middle and high school students. Kennewick plans to wait until February to bring those students back while Richland has not set a date.

Finley and Burbank have brought all of their students back for hybrid learning. That means half of the students attend class in person at a time. The two groups then switch off.

Finley has not reported any COVID cases.

Richland has reported three total cases since the beginning of the year. Pasco has not listed the number of cases they have had recently.

Benton, Franklin and Walla Walla counties have been seeing increases in cases across the counties.

Walla Walla County has seen 300 new cases per 100,000 during the two-week period ending on Oct. 24. That number is only expected to increase, according to projections.

Benton County is seeing 179 new cases per 100,000 people during that same period, and Franklin County had 273 per 100,000.

The state Department of Health recommended waiting to start bringing students back until cases in the community has fallen to 75 cases per 100,000 over a two-week period.

Benton Franklin Health District and the Walla Walla Department of Community Health pin these increases on social gatherings.