Students
and staff at Countrywood Primary in the South Huntington school district will
not be heading back into the building until at least Sept. 24. after
a staff member there tested positive COVID-19.
The
move comes after a staff member tested positive for coronavirus.
Health
experts say typically those who were in close contact with the infected
individual would quarantine for 14 days. The staff member is having mild to
moderate symptoms.
In an email to the community, superintendent Dave
Bennardo says, "...we find that the infected staff member had a unique
position that requires contact with virtually every child in the school."
Other
districts are reporting positive cases as well, those include Riverhead, Port
Washington, Sachem and Syosset.
Dr.
Sharon Nachman, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at Stony Brook Children's
Hospital, says the way districts handle positive cases can and do vary.
"The
guidelines have not been super specific for each scenario that you might
imagine. The problem is no matter how many scenarios you can imagine, there's
going to be another scenario that someone didn't imagine that happened. So the
schools have some leeway to decide when to close and when not to close. There
are some no-brainers," says Nachman.