Officials report no new cases; county reports 17

Two schools report one positive of probable case each

The University of Colorado Boulder, the site of the state’s largest COVID-19 outbreak, is reporting zero new positive tests, while Boulder County tallied 17 cases Tuesday.

However, officials at two area schools confirmed each had one positive or probable case requiring quarantine.

CU Boulder’s online dashboard, which was updated Tuesday morning, showed no cases were found out of 36 diagnostic tests on Monday. There were also 813 monitoring tests completed. The dashboard showed there are 40 campus isolation spaces in use — 6% of the available isolation space.

The university’s positive test numbers have been dropping steadily. Friday, the online dashboard showed seven cases found out of 67 diagnostic tests. Since the start of the semester Aug. 24, there have been 1,082 positive tests, according to the dashboard.

The 17 new county cases bring the total number of cases to 4,675. Of those, 211 have been hospitalized and 80 have died. There are 209 disease investigations in progress.

The five-day average of new daily cases on Tuesday was 16.6. One week ago, the five-day average was 50.2.

Erie High student who attended orientation day diagnosed with COVID-19

An Erie High School student who attended an orientation day on Friday was diagnosed with COVID-19, according to an email sent to families from Principal Matt Buchler.

The orientation, or transition

day, was for ninth-graders and students new to the school. The email did not share how many students or teachers may have been in close contact with that student and so required to quarantine for 14 days.

Hybrid learning began Monday at St. Vrain Valley schools.

St. Vrain Valley spokeswoman Kerri Mcdermid directed all questions to the health department. Boulder County Public Health wasn’t able to provide an answer Tuesday afternoon to how many students or staff members were required to quarantine. Officials also could not confirm the student’s county of residence, since the school draws from both Boulder and Weld counties.

The school building has undergone a deep cleaning, according to the email.

Probable case at Whittier Elementary

Families of Whittier Elementary were notified via email Monday night that an individual who was at the school Wednesday and Thursday “developed COVID-LIKE symptoms and was later identified as most likely having COVID-19.”

Boulder Valley School District started the return to in-person learning Sept. 29, one day before.

One staff member, two students and one parent from the school have been placed on quarantine following the probable case, said Boulder Valley School District spokesperson Randy Barber.

“Impacted individuals will be kept at home for 14 days as a precautionary measure. The quarantine is not impacting classes or the operation of the school,” Barber wrote in an email.

Barber said this is the first quarantine since students were reintroduced one week ago, but this was not the first probable case at a Boulder Valley School District school.

“Over the past several months we have periodically had a small number of staff members and, or students on quarantine, after reports of confirmed or probable cases of COVID19,” he said. “The system has been working as expected, these small groups have been isolated to prevent any spread of the disease.”

Those with a student who may have been exposed at Whittier would have been contacted directly, the email sent to parents and guardians stated. If students begin to experience symptoms of the virus, including fever or chills, cough, shortness of breath, loss of taste or smell or other signs of infection, a parent or guardian is asked to notify the school, have the student self-isolate and contact a health care provider.

Statewide, there have been 74,191 positive or probable cases. There have been 2,081 deaths among the cases, and of those, there have been 1,983 deaths because of the coronavirus. There have been 7,721 people hospitalized. Of Colorado’s roughly 5.7 million population, 965,449 people have been tested for the virus.