PUBLIC EDUCATION DEPARTMENT NEWS
The Public Education Department on Sept. 28 announced 12 new positive cases of COVID-19 in the last 72 hours. Rapid response has been initiated, and all pertinent information has been verified with the schools and school districts. The following new cases have been reported:
· Three cases in Chaves County. Two of the infected individual are staff members who were last on campus Sept. 14 and Sept. 22. Additionally, one student tested positive and was last on campus on Sept. 15. All staff members and the parents and guardians of all students in the affected school have been notified of the positive cases.
· One case in Cibola County. The infected individual is a staff member who was last on school property Sept. 25. All close contacts within the district and parents and guardians of all students who had contact with this person have been notified of the positive case.
· One case in Colfax County. The infected individual is a student who was last on school property Sept. 21. All staff members and the parents and guardians of all students in the affected schools have been notified of the positive cases.
· One case in Eddy County. The infected individual is a staff member who was last on school property Sept. 22. All staff members and the parents and guardians of all students in the affected school have been notified of the positive case.
· Two cases in Lincoln County. One infected individual is a staff member who was last on school property Sept. 25. The other is a student who was last on school property Sept. 18. All staff members and the parents and guardians of all students in the affected school have been notified of the positive cases.
. One case in McKinley County. The infected individual is a staff member who was last on school property Sept.25. All staff members and the parents and guardians of all students in the affected school have been notified of the positive case.
. Two cases in Santa Fe County. The infected individuals are staff members who were last on school property Sept. 16 and Sept. 23. All staff members and the parents and guardians of all students in the affected school have been notified of the positive cases.
· One case in Taos County. The infected individual is a student who was last on school property Sept. 18. All staff members and the parents and guardians of all students in the affected school have been notified of the positive cases.
All “close contacts” will be informed of the positive case and instructed to quarantine for 14 days. Affected classrooms and facilities will be cleaned and disinfected. Staff must be tested if symptomatic or a “close contact;” however, staff members will not be required to present a negative test result in order to return to work. Symptomatic staff may return to work after 10 days plus 24 hours after the fever is gone and COVID-19 symptoms have improved. Asymptomatic staff who have been “close contacts” may return to work after a 14-day quarantine.
The PED has collected this data since Aug. 17; since then, 172 total cases have been reported in 88 schools. (That number has been adjusted from previous reports after removing a case that turned out to be in a private school.) Of those, 124 have been staff members and 48 have been students.
For additional information about COVID-19 safety in schools, please visit: https://bit.ly/SafeSchoolsNM.