Lisbon Community School — a K-6 elementary school — reported five cases of COVID-19 among members of the school community to the Maine Department of Education and the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention last week.
Four of these cases did not result in exposure to anyone within the school community during school hours or events as the students have not been attending the school.
One case resulted in a student quarantine, and calls were made to those families to notify them, according to a letter sent to parents by the school department.
“The CDC asks any student who is tested positive for COVID-19 to isolate. We do not allow them back to school until the CDC releases them,” said Julie Nichols, director of the curriculum at Lisbon School Department.
The Maine CDC has not opened any outbreak investigation yet.
About 76 positive COVID-19 cases were reported across the school district during the last academic year, said Richard Green, Lisbon School superintendent.
The school department has started pool testing at the Lisbon Community School on Sept. 13. The testing will be conducted at the Lisbon Middle School and Lisbon High School Sept. 14 and Sept.15, respectively, said Nichols.
Pooled testing is a preventative measure that allows schools to trace very low levels of COVID infection prior to the infectious stage. This allows schools to essentially head off exposures and outbreaks at the classroom/grade level.
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