Superintendent Weekly Press Release September 18, 2020
Dear Cedar Bluffs Families,
COVID RISK LEVEL: YELLOW
For the Week of September 21st, we move back up to Orange rising from 1.75 to 2.00. Dodge county was the only county to fall from 1.88 to 1.75, while Washington rose from 1.63 to 2.00 and Saunders county rose from 1.75 to 2.00 for the week. Governor Ricketts did move all counties (except Lancaster board voted to stay in phase 3) into DHM phase four through October 31, 2020. The phase four DHM will increase capacity of indoor venues to 75% and 100% for outside arenas. Mask mandates and social distancing remain in place at most business, communities and schools.
COVID POSITIVE: 0-Students, 0-Parents/Family Members, 0-Staff, 0-Exposures at School
This week we had two students in the secondary school who are being tested due to symptoms. One has already come back as negative and returned to classes, we are awaiting on the other result. This student was present in school when symptoms presented so we would have a possible exposure pending those results. If we do, Three Rivers will contract trace and let anyone close to this individual know if they need to quarantine or self-monitor. We also had a parent of an elementary student present with symptoms, this parent was tested this week and was negative. This parent did quarantine her students while she awaited test results so as to not risk exposure. We as a school appreciate this precaution and would encourage others to do the same to keep all of our school community safe.
Three Rivers reports they have had 1609 positive cases throughout their jurisdiction since March of 2020 while testing 17,874. That is about a 10% positive rate, which extremely high. However, in schools in the three rivers jurisdiction they report only 11 students in the Kindergarten through sixth grade and 34 seventh through twelfth grade students tested positive for coronavirus. Only one of these students has been placed in the ICU developing the rare condition of MIS-C. They indicate very few cases have been from spread in school. Three Rivers Health attributes this to the fact that all schools are requiring masks. Most all of the cases in our jurisdiction are from events that occur outside of school including a Labor Day Wedding that now has been linked to 113 cases in Saunders County. They reiterate that as schools we encourage that when kids and adults leave our buildings, they should continue with precautions that will help keep our schools open.
Furthermore, Three Rivers Health encourages all students, parents and staff to receive flu shots this year. Cedar Bluffs Public School does host a flu vaccination day for all our staff that is paid through our insurance carrier. In recent years we have been around 90% participation in this event, we are hoping for 100% this year from our staff. Furthermore, Cedar Bluffs Public School has entered into a contract with Total Wellness of Omaha to provide 1-hour COVID testing for all our staff, should they need it. This test is the antigen test that is most effective in the first 5 days of contagion and when symptoms are present. Just another way our school is trying to keep our students and staff safe by providing rapid testing to ensure continued education.
#WildcatPride