BRUNSWICK — Someone at Brunswick’s Harriet Beecher Stowe School is presumed to have tested positive for COVID-19, school officials announced Monday.
In a letter to the community, Superintendent Phillip Potenziano said the department is awaiting confirmation from the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, but that officials are informing families “out of an abundance of caution.”
Potenziano’s letter didn’t say whether the person in question is a staff member or student.
“There is a possibility that other staff or students came in contact with this individual and therefore may have been exposed to the virus,” Potenziano said. “Please monitor yourself/your student for signs and symptoms call a health care provider if symptoms start.”
The school remains open. In a post on Facebook, Harriet Beecher Stowe Elementary School officials said families whose children might have been around the individual have already been notified.
A school representative or someone from the Maine CDC will contact anyone identified as a close contact of someone who tested positive for the virus, and close contacts will be asked to quarantine for 14 days from last exposure to the positive person. A negative test result does not get an individual out of quarantine, Potenziano said.
Brunswick students went back to school in a hybrid model Sept. 14 with extra precautionary measures, including 6 feet of separation between students (more than the recommended three feet between kids), mask-wearing and increased sanitation.
This is the first presumed positive case in a Brunswick school.
Last week, a Mt. Ararat High School staff member tested positive for the virus, according to Maine School Administrative District 75 Superintendent Shawn Chabot. The week before, Harpswell Coastal Academy, a public charter school with campuses in Harpswell and Brunswick, announced that a staff member had tested positive as well.
In his letter, Potenziano urged anyone feeling sick to stay home.
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