BY MAIRE O’NEILL
maire@losalamosreporter.com

Los Alamos High School appeared along with four other public schools Friday on the state’s COVID-10 Watchlist, signifying the school had at least two Rapid Responses within a 14-day period.

A Rapid Response is a series of interventions designed to prevent COVID-19 spread, beginning when the New Mexico Department of Health notifies a school that an employee or student has a confirmed positive case and was on campus/in the facility during the infectious period.  

LAPS Supt. Kurt Steinhaus said Friday morning that the state watch list is a useful tool for acknowledging and communicating information about infection rates. 

“We have a plan in place to address the situation.  LAPS will be providing additional training sessions for students and staff. In addition, we will continue to post all COVD cases on our website,” he said.

Steinhaus provided a link here to a chart showing all LAPS cases and a link to the latest information on COVID-19 and LAPS teaching and learning.

An email Thursday from a coach to parents states that two coaches are COVID-positive and doing fine. The LAPS statistics for this week show three new staff cases and three new student cases. LAHS has been in remote learning mode since the beginning of the school year. The LAPS chart indicates that to date 14 staff members and 35 students have developed COVID.

Los Alamos National Laboratory confirmed 590 cases as of Friday morning with 441 fully recovered. LANL has administered more than 12,000 tests to employees.