Coronavirus Data By School In Harford County Coming Friday
HARFORD COUNTY, MD — Harford County Public Schools is expected to release data Friday showing where suspected cases of the coronavirus are within the school system.
"HCPS will post an updated COVID-19 Dashboard on Friday of each week, beginning this Friday, October 23, 2020, that will notify our community about how schools and offices are impacted by community transmission," Jillian Lader, spokesperson for Harford County Public Schools (HCPS), told Patch.
At the Oct. 12 school board meeting, administrators said 12 HCPS employees had tested positive for the virus, and no students had. On Monday, Superintendent Sean Bulson told WBFF there were still zero students who had contracted the virus.
If a student or staff member at HCPS has an illness that is like coronavirus, officials say there is a protocol to communicate that with those who may be at risk.
Notification Of Potential Exposure
"When the school system is notified about a positive case of COVID-19 or students/staff display COVID like illness as per the Maryland Department of Health Decision Aid, the school nurse works with the staff and family to identify close contacts (as defined by the Centers for Disease Control)," Lader said in a statement to Patch.
Close contacts are defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as those who have been within 6 feet of an infected person for at least a cumulative total of 15 minutes over a 24-hour period. The contact must come two days before the onset of illness or two days before a test was collected, in the case of an asymptomatic person who is now isolated.
Once potential contacts are identified, Lader said: "School nurses work in collaboration with our local health department to institute appropriate isolation/quarantine procedures."
Below is the "decision aid" to guide school systems through how to handle potential infections of the coronavirus. It was released by the Maryland Department of Health and Maryland State Department of Education.
“We believe we have a very safe plan, but everyone needs to do their part and stay safe,” HCPS Superintendent Sean Bulson told WBFF this week about the return to in-person learning. "There have been modifications for everything."
Kindergarten, first and second-grade students and special education students as well as some other special populations returned to school Monday, Oct. 19.
"We just need to watch our numbers," Bulson told WBFF on Monday, noting while some adults had tested positive in the school system, no students had tested positive for the virus.
If people are potentially exposed to the virus, he said they are isolated.
"They are sent home to get tested, then we do all the contact tracing," Bulson told WBFF, saying potential close contacts receive both a phone call and a letter to notify them. A negative test result is required before returning to school, he said.
The plan is to bring in grades three through five starting Nov. 2 for in-person learning.
"We'll hope to bring in more [students] as metrics allow," Bulson said, adding: "We're keeping a very close eye" on the data.
Harford County has seen 3,482 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 76 deaths from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, as of Thursday, Oct. 22, according to state health officials.
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This article originally appeared on the Bel Air Patch
