School system quarantines

MOULTRIE, Ga. – As the numbers of Colquitt County’s quarantined students went from 156 on Oct. 2 to 310 one week later, the school system’s athletic department made the move to once again shorten the 2020 Packer football season.

Athletic director Greg Tillery released a statement Thursday morning that the varsity game against Alcovy High scheduled for Oct. 23 has been canceled. Colquitt County High did not have a game scheduled for Oct. 16.

“We fully expect to resume the season against Camden County on Friday, Oct. 30, at 7:30 p.m. Also, the homecoming activities will coincide with the Camden County football game,” said Tillery in his announcement.

The game with Alcovy High from Newton County was originally slated to be Homecoming for the Packers. Camden County is Colquitt’s first scheduled game in the four-team Region 1-7A.

This announcement came a day after Lowndes High, also in Region 1-7A, placed its entire football team under quarantine and canceled two games. The Vikings, too, plan to return to play on Oct. 30.

Colquitt County Schools’ COVID-19 update for Oct. 9 listed a student population of 9,098 with 10 students testing positive for the coronavirus and 310 under quarantine. Also on the update is the system’s staff population, which is 1,358. Forty-nine staff members are under quarantine and eight tested positive. That is up from 23 on quarantine and three who tested positive the week ending Oct. 2.

Quarantines normally last two weeks, and totals like 310 students reflect those still on quarantine from the previous week and those entering this isolation status. Colquitt County Schools’ return to school guidelines (based upon Georgia Department of Public Health strategies) show that a person can go into quarantine who is asymptomatic but has tested positive for COVID-19 or anyone who had close contact with a person with COVID-19.