Case confirmed with school connections
The Medicine Hat Public School Division has confirmed one positive case of COVID-19 within one adult who has connections to two schools.
MHPSD sent out releases late Sunday, informing parents that a case of COVID-19 had been confirmed at Elm Street School. The individual with the virus is from Ms. Weisgerber and Mr. Flieger’s class.
Later that night, the school learned that the individual from Elm Street School had been in contact with Herald School’s Before and After School Program.
“The same individual was in contact with children and staff at both locations,” said superintendent Mark Davidson. “We found out about the contact at Elm Street School around 6 p.m. Sunday evening. We found out about the Herald contact around 10 p.m.”
Because of the exposure, all Grade 5 students from Elm Street and their teachers will isolate.
“All of the students and any teachers who were in the class at the same time as the infected individual have to isolate,” said Davidson. “AHS will be in touch with those families and individuals shortly in order to tell them how long and what they have to do while isolating.”
The individual with COVID19 is an employee with the Before and After School Program that is put on by the YMCA. Students who were present while the individual was at the school are now forced to isolate.
Davidson says the school board sent out extra cleaning staff Sunday to the areas where the individual worked, and then again on Monday morning.
“We made sure those areas were completely cleaned,” said Davidson. “The one at Elm Street will be blocked off until students and staff have returned.
“We had a custodial response in addition to what we’ve been doing this year with extra cleaning.”
Davidson says the positive case does not mean drastic changes of to the board’s plans.
“We’ve been cohorting students and following AHS guidelines,” he said. “We’ve been tracking student movement and that allowed us to provide AHS with useful information very quickly.”
The YMCA’s program has been suspended for 14 days. The dates where the infected individual attended were Sept. 25, 28 and 30.