An individual within Washington Middle School has tested positive for COVID-19 according to information from school officials. In a message sent to families of Washington Middle School students on Thursday there are no close contacts within the school and no need to quarantine staff or students. According to a statement from Allegany County Public Schools “due to privacy concerns and legal restrictions, ACPS cannot report to the media or the general public details of suspected or actual cases of COVID-19 among students and staff. ACPS communicates all suspected and actual cases to the Health Department and cooperates with the direction of the Health Department.”
From GCPS: An individual in the Garrett County Public School system has tested positive for COVID-19. The individual is out of the building and will continue to quarantine. Garrett County Public Schools will follow its comprehensive internal plan for a positive case, including consistent sanitizing, informing families whose students were at risk of exposure or in close contact, and supporting the affected family. Through collaboration with the Garrett County Health Department and contact tracing, it has been determined that no close contact of any student or staff member has occurred in this case. The GCPS’ plan for notification is as follows:
- The Garrett County Health Department will notify those who have had close contact with the ill person. Close contact means being less than 6 feet for more than 15 minutes, with or without a face covering.
- The school will notify parents/guardians if the COVID-19 positive person was in their child’s classroom even if your child was not a close contact. A letter will be sent home with your child.
The confidentiality of the COVID-19 positive person will be maintained.
Students and staff members have been closely adhering to all safety protocols in place, including facial coverings, hand washing, and social distancing. Garrett County Public Schools follows all CDC, Maryland Department of Health, and Maryland State Department of Education protocols, including collaborating with the Garrett County Health Department. Additionally, the district requests that if your child is tested for COVID-19, you report your child’s test results to the school nurse at your child’s school.Garrett County Public Schools will continue to be vigilant in adhering to all of the protocols put in place to continue in-person learning. Students who are required to quarantine at home will continue learning via remote education.We have been preparing for this scenario in all of the planning for the return to learning. Our primary goal continues to be keeping our students and staff safe. We will continue our efforts to mitigate risk and to maintain a safe environment in our schools. We are grateful to our families for their continued efforts in keeping students home at the first sign of symptoms. These measures along with wearing face-coverings, social distancing, and hand washing will significantly reduce any further transmission risk.
In Mineral County there are 195 total cases 16 are currently active 175 have recovered and there are 4 total deaths
Morgan County Schools and Berkeley-Morgan County Health Department have received confirmation that a student at Warm Springs Intermediate School has tested positive for COVID-19. The Berkeley-Morgan County Health Department has been working closely with Morgan County Schools to identify any potential people who may have had close contact with them including students, staff, family members and friends. Those that need to be quarantined will be contacted by the health department.
The Hampshire County Health Department has confirmed one new positive COVID-19 case today. Case investigation has been completed and contacts have been notified. The case is not related to the nursing home. The current case count for Hampshire Co. is 117 confirmed, 2 probable, 4 active, and 1 death. No one is hospitalized at this time.
From BASD: In an effort to keep the Bedford Area School District’s community informed about the spread of COVID-19, we want to update you regarding the current status of COVID-19 cases in the district. Currently, the district is managing five positive cases, forty-two close contacts, and monitoring six suspected cases. It appears as if the local school district is mirroring the county-wide trend. Please remember the district provides a dashboard of active cases and suspected cases at https://www.bedfordasd.org/covid-19-information–117.
The Bedford Area School District actively monitors the spread of COVID-19 and has numerous measures in place to ensure a safe and stable environment for students and staff. The District promotes social distancing in all school functions and works with parents and students to maximize the use of face coverings. Also, our hybrid schedule offers educational stability. The hybrid schedule, in numerous situations, alleviated the need to quarantine other students and classmates, which would lead to constant and irregular disruptions in the educational process.
Recently, the District experienced a situation outside of the hybrid model in the form of a sports team. In this situation, one positive COVID-19 case led to the quarantine of the entire team. To be clear, one positive case led to the quarantine of over twenty-five individuals; our largest quarantine to date.
The Bedford Area School District sincerely asks the community, parents, and students to continue to support our mission to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Please continue to do your part by washing your hands, wearing a mask, and engaging in social distancing. If you have symptoms or believe you may have been exposed to COVID-19, please contact your building administration and do not come to school or school activities. For current information on COVID-19, please visithttps://www.health.pa.gov/topics/disease/coronavirus/Pages/Guidance/School-Health-FAQ.aspx.
We appreciate your trust as we attempt to do our best to keep your children safe in these challenging times. Like you, we long for normalcy at some point in the near future. :