◆ Santa Fe Public Schools announces 20 new virus cases.

Nineteen students and a single staff member recently tested positive for COVID-19, Santa Fe Public Schools announced.

District spokesman Cody Dynarski wrote in a text message Tuesday night one of the cases may have been contracted within the schools. He declined to name the school.

On Wednesday, the district announced single cases among students were identified at Ramirez Thomas Elementary, Gonzales

Community School and El Camino Real Academy. Those cases were all identified before the start of the school week.

Contract tracing did not indicate any of the three cases announced Wednesday were contracted from within the schools.

The new case announcements come as the Public Education Department updated its COVID-19 guidances this week to align with new testing and masking mandates set forth by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.

New guidelines reduce the amount of time school staff must wait before cleaning a room an infected person occupied and recommend all close contacts of a positive case should wait five days after initial contact to get tested for COVID-19.

The district announced Tuesday night a staff member at El Camino Real Academy tested positive through the district’s mandatory weekly surveillance testing for unvaccinated staff on Aug. 19.

Four students at Piñon Elementary and four at Nina Otero Community School tested positive between this week and late last week.

Single cases were found among students at Amy Biehl, Aspen Community School, Capital High School, and César Chávez and Chaparral elementary schools.

Two students at Gonzales tested positive last week.

The announcements bring the number of confirmed cases in the district to more than 40 since school staff members went back to classrooms at the start of August.