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WINDSOR – Six employees of Bertie County Public Schools have tested positive for COVID-19 and are currently in quarantine.

All six are adults. Bertie students are currently engaged in remote learning, at least through mid-October, due to the virus.

According to a school official at the Central Office, one employee each at Bertie High School, Bertie Early College High School, Bertie Middle School, and Windsor Elementary tested positive.

Additionally, two bus drivers tested positive. One of those drivers served in another capacity with the school system by assisting with office duties.

The school official said contact tracing showed the affected employees came in contact with COVID-19 outside of the schools.

Other employees who may have been in contact with those workers have been advised to self-isolate and/or be tested, following advice and guidelines from Albemarle Regional Health Services.

Meanwhile, each of the four schools has been thoroughly disinfected.

The news of COVID-19 in Bertie County Public Schools comes just days after Hertford County Public Schools reported confirmed cases among their employees. There, the number of those with the virus as well as the location of where they work was not made public, either by the school system or from local/state health officials. It is believed that no official report was made available due to there are less than five cases per campus. The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services defines a COVID-19 cluster as a minimum of five laboratory confirmed cases within a single location.