Fairfield Ludlowe closes after more people test positive

FAIRFIELD — Fairfield Ludlowe High School will be closed for the rest of the week after more individuals tested positive for coronavirus, according to town officials.

In a news conference Wednesday evening, First Selectwoman Brenda Kupchick said there were six positive cases in town high schools — five at Fairfield Ludelow and one at Fairfield College Preparatory School. She said four of the

Ludlowe cases may have been the result of approximately six gatherings of high school students over the weekend.

“This also could result in over a hundred people having to be quarantined for 14 days, which is a big deal,” Kupchick said. “I get repeated reports from individuals across our community, complete with pictures, of our middle school and high school students gathering in large groups.”

Kupchick said these gatherings have been reported in various places around town, noting the young people are not wearing masks. She said there is a civic responsibility not just for adults, but for children, to follow health guidelines.

Kupchick later said that one party had to be broken up by police because of the number of people there. She said some of the parties were taking place at homes — with parents’ consent. She said the gatherings could set the town back in a significant way.

“We have worked extraordinarily hard since March to make sure that our community is safe and that our numbers were kept low,” Kupchick said. “Our school district has gone above and beyond to try to bring back normalcy and have school for our children, and these types of things could really spiral out of control.”

“I feel like déjà vu,” she said. “We were doing this in March — talking about our civic responsibility as a community to make sure that we keep our numbers down, so that we could have our students go back to school, our business reopen.”

Kupchick urged parents to remind their children to follow health guidelines.

Superintendent Mike Cummings, who also spoke at the news conference, announced the four new cases at Ludlowe earlier in the afternoon. The new cases come a day after one student enrolled at Ludlowe tested positive.

“As a result, Fairfield Ludlowe High School will be closed on Thursday, September 24 and Friday, September 25 to allow for cleaning and contract tracing,” he said in a message to the community, adding students would follow the remote schedule published last week.

Even with the new cases, Cummings said the protocols the district put in place are working, noting they were followed in consultation with Health Department Director Sands Cleary and Nursing Supervisor Jill Mitchell.

Cummings said the health department received notification of the positive test from the Connecticut Department of Public Health, and immediately reached out to the individuals to begin contact tracing.

“Anyone who has been in close contact with these individuals is being contacted by a member of the Fairfield Health Department Contact Tracing Team,” Cummings said.

The district would not be releasing specific information about the individuals involved, Cummings said, in order to comply with laws and regulations regarding student and employee privacy.