An Ignacio Elementary School student tested positive for COVID-19 this week, prompting the school district’s first quarantine because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The school district instructed about 20 students in first grade and kindergarten and up to five teachers to quarantine this week in response to the positive case, said Rocco Fuschetto, Ignacio superintendent.
San Juan Basin Public Health has been in communication with people who might have been exposed to the student. They have instructed community members to return from quarantine based on their last known contact with the student. First grade will return Oct. 1; kindergarten Oct. 6, Fuschetto said.
“Parents wanted to know who it was. I said, ‘If you’re not contacted by the school principal, you weren’t in contact with the person. So you should be good.’ They appreciated that,” Fuschetto said.
School administrators notified the district via email about the case. Neither the school district nor the elementary school issued an update via their social media pages. The elementary school did not have a notification about the case on its website as of Thursday.
Fuschetto said the district did inform local entities like the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, the town of Ignacio and the local chamber of commerce.
“We’ll just keep monitoring everybody according to what the health department is telling us to do, and we follow their lead,” Fuschetto said. “I’ve been in daily contact with the health department.”
smullane@durangoherald.com
