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North Lancaster News

Wednesday, November 13, 2024

HEMPFIELD SCHOOL DISTRICT: COVID-19 Community Updates

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Hempfield School District issued the following announcement.

This update provides additional information about quarantining and isolating, how to report if your student is symptomatic or has been tested for COVID-19, and how we are reporting positive cases of COVID-19.

Penn Medicine LG Health offers a simple graphic regarding the difference between isolation and quarantine. View the information here. 

In Summary… 

  • COVID-19 Patient: Sick and needs to stay home and away from others (in isolation)
  • Close Contacts: Healthy but in close contact with a COVID-19 patient; needs to stay home (in quarantine) 
    • “Close contacts” includes anyone who is within 6 feet of the COVID+ individual for 15 or more minutes. This applies whether the individual wears a mask or not.
    • Please review this Guidance for People with COVID-19 and their Close Contacts.
  • Contacts of Contacts: Not in close contact with the COVID-19 patient; no reason to isolate or quarantine at this time, unless experiencing symptoms   
What to Do If…

If your child has been tested for COVID-19 and/or you have reason to suspect your student may have COVID-19, please contact your Building Health Room Nurse so we can begin implementing our protocols. 

Reporting

If our district is notified that a student or staff member tests positive for COVID-19, we are following the Department of Health’s contact tracing protocols. This means that we contact the individuals who are deemed to be close contacts of the COVID-19 positive individual. Again, a close contact is someone who has been within 6 feet for 15 or more minutes. For our students, this means a parent/guardian will also contacted. For our staff members, we have individual conversations.

It is important to note that this notification is provided so individuals can quarantine and monitor for COVID-19 symptoms, as well as take any other necessary precautions deemed appropriate by the individual or their medical provider. Individuals who are not close contacts will not be notified as they do not need to quarantine. We continue to ask our entire school community to be mindful of COVID-19 symptoms and, if they exhibit symptoms, to stay home and contact their primary care physician.

Working in collaboration with the Department of Health and Lancaster County’s contact tracing program, school districts assist with contact tracing, but the DOH and/or Lancaster County’s contact tracing program will conduct additional interviews to determine if there are other close contacts who must quarantine. Those individuals would be contacted by the appropriate medical personnel. 

At all times, it is essential that school districts ensure the privacy of students and staff members. If we share school specific numbers pertaining to COVID-19 positive cases, even without names, we are potentially releasing medical information that could be linked to individuals. If the Department of Health requires school districts to inform the community at-large, we would work with them to follow the appropriate protocols.

In an effort to provide our community with information, we intend to provide and update the following chart each school day by 4:00 p.m.

Today, the district conducted contact tracing and made a report to the Department of Health.

 

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We have now released a new “COVID-19 Community Information” page to house this reporting information and other relevant resources. This is directly linked on in the HSD Coronavirus Update Center. This page will continue to provide our school community with the latest information about COVID-19 and Hempfield School District.

Original source can be found here.

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