From Staff Reports 

Six confirmed, linked COVID-19 cases at Asheville Middle School constitute the latest school cluster in Buncombe county since classes started in August, according to a Sept. 24 announcement from AMS Principal April Collins, the Asheville Citizen Times reported.

“Buncombe County Health and Human Services confirmed the cases are linked, the announcement says, meeting the state’s Department of Health and Human Services’ definition of a cluster as ‘five positive cases identified ... within a 14-day period and plausible epidemiologic link between cases.’

“A cluster is considered over once there is no more evidence of continued transmission. Close contact of those individuals have been identified and school administrators and nurses have called families personally impacted. 

“The announcement notes that unless a family has been contacted by a contact tracer with the county or school official, then no one in the family has been in close contact with a confirmed case related to the cluster. 

“According to Collins’ announcement, all those who tested positive are self-isolating at home, as per state and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines,” the ACT stated.