COUNTY — Dozens of School District of Pickens County employees and students were in quarantine during the first week of the school year last week, according to district officials.

As students made their return to in-person learning for the first time since March, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced classes to move all online throughout the state, 32 staff members and 60 students from Pickens County were quarantined last week, though only seven staff members and 11 students had tested positive for the virus.

Only five of the positive cases had been inside school buildings, according to the district’s weekly case count, sent to parents Friday by superintendent Danny Merck.

SDPC spokesman John Eby said that on Aug. 24 — the first day of the school year — the district had 30 employees under

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