#Georgia’s largest school district reportedly sees surge of employees exposed to COVID-19

Around 260 employees in Georgia’s largest school district have either tested positive for the coronavirus or have been exposed to the contagion, according to a new report.

Teachers in the Gwinnett County School District — in the metro-Atlanta area — began in-person meetings Wednesday to prepare for a return to school at 141 facilities throughout the county, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

But by the next day, about 260 employees were excluded from work after either testing positive or being in contact with a COVID-19 patient, the outlet reported.

Gwinnett spokeswoman Sloan Roach added that tracing indicates “the majority of these cases are the result of community spread, meaning we have people who have called in to report who have not been at school or work.”

The district had already pushed its start date for the new school year back to Aug. 12, Roach told CNN. She did not tell the network whether the surge in cases within the district have changed its reopening plans.

Georgia has seen 195,435 confirmed coronavirus cases and 3,842 deaths, according to the latest data.

Gwinnett County accounts for 17,927 of those cases, and 240 deaths, the data shows.