County health department spokesman Christopher Ave said the county does not have any enforcement mechanism to prevent schools from moving high-contact games to other counties.

But Spring Schmidt, acting co-director of the county health department, said that doesn’t mean the department approves of such moves.

“Games like softball, volleyball and football involve frequent, close contact, offering the opportunity for the virus that causes COVID-19 to spread,” Schmidt said in a statement.

The Eureka-based school district has 33 schools and almost 21,000 students, and includes parts of St. Louis and Jefferson counties, including Ballwin, Chesterfield, Clarkson Valley, Ellisville, Fenton, Wildwood and Winchester. Its high schools include Eureka High, Lafayette High, Marquette High and Rockwood Summit High.

The St. Louis County health department said this week that it has documented five clusters of COVID-19 transmission among student athletes, directly linked to practices or games.

In addition to those cases, the county also said more than 20 other student athletes have contracted the virus in recent weeks, though it is unclear whether those transmissions were due to sports or social activities.

On Friday Missouri reported 1,795 new cases of COVID-19, reaching a total of 110,129 and 23 more deaths over the last 24 hours.