Los Alamos Reporter

LAPS Announces Positive COVID-19 Case At Barranca Mesa Elementary

BY MAIRE O’NEILL
maire@losalamosreporter.com

Los Alamos Public Schools announced in a weekly newsletter Monday that a report was received Friday afternoon of a positive COVID-19 case for a student at Barranca Mesa Elementary School. This is the fifth LAPS case of COVID-19. The LAPS website notes a Los Alamos High School student, two Los Alamos Middle School staff members and one LAMS student have also tested positive.

The announcement follows in its entirety:

“Last Friday at 4:30pm, we received a report of a positive COVID-19 case at Barranca Mesa Elementary School. The first step was to verify the information and then follow steps in the COVID-19 Toolkit from PED.

“The student was last in school on Monday, October 26th.

“We have identified “close contacts” that occurred between the student and any staff members and student-to-student. A “close contact” is defined as someone who has an exposure of three minutes or longer and within six feet of a confirmed COVID-19 case with or without a face covering (New Mexico Public Education Department COVID-19 Response Tool Kit, p. 8) and all students and staff in the same classroom of the infected individual.

“As required by NMPED and District, the Barranca Administrative Team has taken the following actions:

  • Reported the case to the State of New Mexico (PED and The New Mexico Environment Department – NMENV)
  • Contacted anyone who had contact with the student
  • Required staff and students to get COVID testing who were in close contact
  • Classroom closed, staff and students in that classroom will quarantine for 14 days
  • Working on setting up Remote Instruction for the class
  • Classroom deep cleaned and will be cleaned again on Monday

“You can click here for a link to the LAPS web page showing total positive COVID case counts. We will continue to be completely transparent and answer all parent and staff questions.”

The New Mexico Public Education reported Oct. 30 that there have been 601 cases across 298 schools in the state since Sept. 7 – 413 staff members and 204 students.