9 more Fayette students, another staff member quarantined; student tests COVID positive

Nine more Fayette County students and one more staff member were quarantined Friday night after a student at Booker T. Washington Elementary participating in on-campus learning this week tested positive for COVID-19, district officials said.

Among students and staff who have been on campus since K-2 students returned Feb. 22 for the first time since March 2020, there been at least six positive cases at six separate schools. At least five students and one staff member who have been on campus since Monday’s return to in-person learning have tested positive.

In all, at least 64 students and seven staff members have been asked to quarantine in these cases since Feb. 22.

Being quarantined means that students and staff stay home for ten days from the time they were exposed to those who tested positive for the coronavirus. Students affected will learn remotely.

In the latest case, district spokeswoman Lisa Deffendall said, district officials are asking students and employees to quarantine as a result of a possible exposure to one person who has tested positive.

Deffendall said health department officials have advised the district to use an abundance of caution in making decisions about the youngest students because they spend the whole day together, including eating breakfast and lunch, and playing at recess.

A close contact means being within six feet of someone while they were contagious for a cumulative total of 15 minutes, she said.

If students are together for seven hours a day, and they are young students who are more likely to move around the room, play together at recess and eat in the classroom, there is a possibility that they would have been within six feet at one time or another.

Even if just for one or two minutes, if it happens a few times a day, that could total 15 minutes over the course of someone’s contagious period, she said.

Fayette Health Commissioner Kraig Humbaugh has said that there will be some instances where an entire class will quarantine.

Deffendall said at the middle and high school levels, where students are not together all day, the approach will be different.

At least three entire Fayette school classes, as well as other students and staff, have been quarantined since students in kindergarten through second grade returned Monday to in-person learning for the first time in months, district officials said Thursday. In three cases in which students tested positive, their classes at Rosa Parks Elementary, Liberty Elementary and Glendover Elemetary were quarantined.

Students at Cardinal Valley Elementary and Brenda Cowan Elementary have been affected in other cases.

Additional grades will be added to in-person school starting March 3, when grades 3, 4 and 5 will go back to school.

On March 8 and on March 15, middle and high school students will return.

Acting Superintendent Marlene Helm said in her weekly video posted online Saturday that district officials know there will be more positive cases and quarantines. But she said district officials think they can keep students safe.