PUBLIC EDUCATION DEPARTMENT NEWS

SANTA FE – The Public Education Department on Oct. 6 announced 14 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:

§  Two cases in Bernalillo County. The infected individuals are staff members who were last on school property Sept. 17, and Sept. 24. All staff members and the parents and guardians of all students in the affected school have been notified of the positive cases.

§  Three cases in Curry County. Two of the infected individuals are staff members who were last on school property Sept. 29 and Oct. 2. The other infected individual is a student who was last on school property Sept. 29. All staff members and the parents and guardians of all students in the affected school have been notified of the positive cases.

§  Three cases in Doña Ana County. The infected individuals are staff members who were last on school property Sept. 15, Sept. 25, and Oct. 2. All staff members and the parents and guardians of all students in the affected school have been notified of the positive cases.

§  Three cases in Lea County. Two infected individuals are staff members who were last on school property Oct. 1. The other infected individual is a student who was last on school property Oct. 1. All staff members and the parents and guardians of all students in the affected school have been notified of the positive cases.

§  Two cases in McKinley County. The infected individuals are staff members who were last on school property Sept. 30 and Oct. 5. 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 Otero County. The infected individual is a staff member who was last on school property Sept. 24. 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, 341 total cases have been reported in 128 schools. Of those, 174 have been staff members and 67 have been students. 

For additional information about COVID-19 safety in schools, please visit: https://bit.ly/SafeSchoolsNM