Gov. Reeves: Biloxi High’s COVID outbreak was result of students going to large parties
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves says that the COVID-19 outbreak that led to Biloxi High School’s decision to go to distance learning for two weeks was mostly the result of students being exposed while attending large parties.
Reeves and the state’s top health officer, Dr. Thomas Dobbs, commended Biloxi Superintendent Marcus Boudreaux for his decision to take students out of the classroom until Sept. 8.
A total of 15 BHS students tested positive for the coronavirus and another 234 were asked to quarantine due to potential exposure.
“Some students went to social gatherings and there were a couple of instances where they went to very large social gatherings,” Reeves said Tuesday. “There was an outbreak with a number of cases. As the result of contact tracing they found that there was somewhere between 1/5 or 1/3 of the entire high school was going to have to be quarantined because of one large social gathering.”
Reeves described the situation as “relatively unique” compared to other outbreaks that have taken place at schools across the state.
“I think this is a learning opportunity for other parts of the state,” the governor said. “Don’t have parties where there are 150-200 people there. It’s not going to work out well for everyone else.”
Dobbs said he wouldn’t be surprised to see other schools eventually have to take similar steps to Biloxi.
“(Biloxi) made exactly the right decision,” he said. “It’s going to happen time to time. It is entirely unnecessary to have social events in and around high schools. If we want football or extracurricular activities, schools can’t have social events that violate an executive order on the books.
“Please be careful, don’t have parties. If you’re a parent, please don’t sanction them. You’re putting kids at risk and you’re putting the entire educational system at risk.”
The Biloxi football team won’t be able to practice until Sept. 8 and its season opener against Poplarville, which was originally scheduled for Sept. 4, has been canceled. A Sept. 11 game against Vicksburg in Clinton is still on schedule at the moment.
Dobbs said that there were 3,913 students and 584 students were in quarantine as of last week. There were 292 students and 144 teachers with new COVID-19 cases last week.
