“Logan County COVID incident cases have increased over the past week that moved our county to a Red status,” Russellville Interim Superintendent Leon Allen told faculty and staff Monday.
Reports from the Barren River Health Department show that the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Logan County ballooned by 23 from 635 to 658 from Friday until Monday. The deaths of 30 Logan Countians have been attributed to the pandemic.
“Please know we do not take this lightly and monitor daily. Currently there are no known positive active cases of any student or staff at this time in our district. Mrs. Kim McDaniel communicates daily with the Logan County Health Department (LCHD) and was told most of the new cases this past week have been 60 or older. The LCHD will be closely watching for possible surges in the next 10 days due to returning fall breakers,” Allen said.
“Our procedures will be to remain in daily contact with LCHD to seek guidance on new cases in Logan County, especially cases that have a direct impact on our school district.”
Meanwhile Logan County Superintendent Paul Mullins reports two new cases in the county, both students. One is enrolled at Lewisburg and the other at Olmstead. That brings the total in the county schools to 15, he says, although the ‘dashboard’ does not include a case from Lewisburg in that number.
Mullins says both of the new cases “occurred during Fall Break with no exposure or quarantine to anyone else”
Both school systems were on fall break last week and several families traveled to other states. Often positive tests take several days to manifest themselves.
Russellville’s Smith told school employees, “While COVID is all around, we ask you to adhere to the CDC guidelines. We will continue to monitor daily. We will also ask that staff be on alert and ready to revert back to NTI with 24-hours’ notice should we move into a phase that LCHD advises us to return to in home instruction.”
The Russellville superintendent concludes, "Let’s hope and pray that we will be able to continue with our current schedule. Our kids need to be in school!"