Oregon elementary school closes after positive COVID-19 case

PORTLAND — An elementary school on the southern Oregon coast will close Monday after at least one person who tested positive for COVID-19 interacted with others on campus, school officials said.

In a letter Sunday to Brookings-Harbor School District families and staff, Superintendent David Marshall said the district was told earlier in the day by Curry County health officials that people at Kalmiopsis Elementary School in Brookings were exposed to the virus by “individuals.” He did not say if the person or people who tested positive were students, staff or parents.

Marshall said areas of the school will be sanitized. Virtual classes for kindergarten through third grade will begin by Tuesday, and people determined to have had direct exposure to the virus will be notified by health department or school district representatives and will need to quarantine for two weeks.

Curry County Emergency Management announced Sunday evening that an adult and child who live in the same home in the county both tested positive for COVID-19 and that health staff were working with the school on contact tracing. Curry County said they were first notified of the cases through Del Norte County Public Health in California.

The adult and child are home, self-isolating and monitoring their symptoms, the county emergency management said.

The Oregon Health Authority hasn’t disclosed any outbreaks at schools. The agency has said it would only disclose outbreaks involving five or more cases in schools with enrollment of at least 30 students.

Kalmiopsis Elementary School has students from kindergarten to fifth grade. In-person classes began Sept. 11 for students at the school up to third grade. Fourth and fifth grade students were planned to solely attend virtual classes until at least Oct. 9, according to the school district.

The county reports having 28 confirmed cases of coronavirus as of Sunday, and all but four have recovered from the illness.

Oregon has 30,801 confirmed or presumptive COVID-19 cases as of Sunday, and 526 people have died from it.