At least 800 people in one Georgia school district have been forced to quarantine after being exposed to dozens of people who tested positive for COVID-19 only a week after the school year began. The first positive case in the Cherokee County School District was recorded August 4, a day after the school year began. Since then, 38 students and 12 staff members have contracted the virus. Students are allowed to either attend school in person or remotely, and while the district provides them with face masks, they are not required to wear one. Staff members are required to wear face coverings when they can’t social distance. Schools in the district won’t close, according to a letter sent to parents by the district’s superintendent Brian Hightower. “How long can we keep schools open?” he wrote. “The answer will depend on all of us as a community. We need to social distance whenever we can, and always wear masks when we cannot.”