PUBLIC EDUCATION DEPARTMENT NEWS
The Public Education Department on Sept. 30 announced seven new positive cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 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:
§ One case in Chaves 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 case.
§ One case in Doña Ana County. The infected individual is a staff member who was last on school property Sept. 11. All staff members and the parents and guardians of all students in the affected school have been notified of the positive case.
§ 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 Lea County. The infected individuals are students who were last on school property Sept. 15. 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 McKinley County. The infected individual is a student 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.
§ One case in Santa Fe County. The infected individual is a staff member who was last on school property Sept. 28. All staff members and the parents and guardians of all students in the affected school have been notified of the positive case.
All “close contacts” will be informed of the positive case(s) 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, 195 total cases have been reported in 99 schools. (That number has been adjusted from previous reports after removing a case that turned out to be in a private school.) Of those, 137 have been staff members and 58 have been students.
For additional information about COVID-19 safety in schools, please visit: https://bit.ly/SafeSchoolsNM.