An outbreak of COVID-19 at a Cumberland County school means that the students are back to remote learning for almost three weeks.

Students at Myron L. Powell School, located in the Cedarville section of Lawrence Township, will not return to the building until Oct. 12. In a letter to parents, school officials said that there were more than a dozen cases of the virus in students and staff, with more test results pending.

“There’s a lot of testing happening and we’re not receiving results as quickly as we want to,” says Cumberland County Health Officer Megan Sheppard. “Some were 5-7 days out.”

The school houses students from early education to eighth grade. The letter to parents also said that the switch was due to community spread of the virus, a delay in testing and low vaccination rates.

There are 16 reported cases in all. The Department of Health says that it is working to get more residents vaccinated. Close to 65% of adults already have at least one dose of the vaccine.

But opinions on the COVID-19 vaccine are mixed in the community.

“I got vaccinated, my wife got vaccinated, so I think it’s the parents' fault… They’ve been greedy, selfish. Go get vaccinated and get your kid vaccinated and let it go for everybody so everybody can go back to school and be reasonable,” says parent Julius Walker.

“For me personally, I don’t feel like I’m going to get the vaccine right now. But that’s just my personal opinion. I’m going to wait because people are still getting [the virus] with a vaccine, so I don’t know,” says Heather Orr.

Cumberland County health officials say that this is the first COVID-19 school closure of the school year.