Update for COVID-Cases at NCHS

Catherine Burges and Caroline Vincent, News Editors

@cburges_courant @cvincentcourant

On September 20th, Superintendent Bryan Luizzi confirmed that a member of the NCHS community had tested positive for COVID-19. Two days later, four positive cases were confirmed at NCHS and 51 students were put in quarantine.

Due to these cases, NCHS has decided to remain in the hybrid model and plans to reevaluate returning full time on October 26. Originally, the tentative date of return was October 5. “The goal is to get everyone back full time and do it in a way that feels safe for everybody,” Mr. William Egan said. “We will see how the middle school reentry goes and if we need to slow down we will, and if we don’t we will be back then.”

The administration has been putting in effort to prevent the spread of the virus throughout NCHS, according to Mr. Egan. “At the high school level it’s really tough because it’s almost impossible to cohort,” he said. “ However, if we were back full time you could almost anticipate 3 or 4 times the amount of kids that would have to be quarantined from this episode. We ended up with 55, but you could anticipate almost 200 if we had that many cases that would have to quarantine.”

Mr. Egan confirmed that the four COVID-19 cases at NCHS were due to out of school activities, and a recent email from Superintendent Bryan Luizzi said that the majority of close contacts appear to be from participation in youth sports. In the email, Mr. Luizzi asked students to please remember, and to remind others, to follow the advice of the CDC and DPH by wearing a mask, maintaining social distancing, frequently washing hands, and staying home when ill. Mr. Egan has also been emphasizing this at NCHS. “Wear a mask, social distance, and wash your hands regularly. It’s really important and it’s how we are going to stay in school,” he said. “Those are the biggest things we can do to help stop the spread of the disease.”

As a new mitigation strategy, NCHS has added plexiglass dividers between seats in the cafeteria. “It’s another way to prevent possible vapor exchange,” Mr. Egan said. “It gives people another layer of protection.” However, Mr. Egan still encourages students to go outside to eat. “If it rains, be prepared to go outside. If it’s cold, be prepared to go outside,” he said. If it’s not something that’s dangerous to your health, I would say go outside.”

It has been encouraged for upperclassmen to leave campus during lunch and free periods to minimize the amount of people in the school at one time. However, this has led to some students from both NCHS and Saxe Middle School not following social distancing guidelines and wearing masks. In an effort to resolve the problem, Mr. Egan and Officer Geoffrey Lambert went into town after school on September 23rd to enforce these rules, however they found that many high schoolers were being respectful of COVID-19 guidelines. “We went through and said hello to everyone,” Mr. Egan said. “And I was pleased to see everyone at the high school level wearing masks at appropriate times.”

Mr. Egan is optimistic about the return to full time in-person learning despite these recent COVID-19 cases. “We must educate as much as we can and talk about why it is important to wear masks, and socially distance both in and outside of school,” he said. “Our plan is one that supports education.”

The NCHS Nurses, Janet Reed, Karina Giagnos, and Elizabeth Imbrongo, are optimistic about the return to full time in person school even with the approach of flu season. “In my mind, we think positive,” Ms. Reed said. “Everyone’s wearing masks, everyone’s washing their hands, if anything people are taking more precautions than usual which should slow down the spread of the flu. I am just hoping and praying.”

Karina Giagnos was an E.R. Nurse during the peak of the pandemic, where she learned about the importance and need for many of the mitigation strategies that NCHS has implemented. “I’d definitely stress the importance of the daily screen, monitor your symptoms at home, no one should be coming in if they are sick,” she said. “This is how we stay open, this is how we stay safe.” 

She defined the qualifications for going into quarantine, which has been important to the NCHS community as a result of  the recent cases. “Close contact requires you to be within 6 feet for more than fifteen cumlative minutes with someone having symptoms,” she said. “If you meet those requirements you will be contacted and told that you’ve been exposed to a student or staff member who is COVID-19 positive, and then from there you begin the quarantine.”

Ms. Giagnos is also encouraging testing. “Some parents and students are actually testing themselves as a precaution, knowing that given the four cases they just want to make sure they don’t have COVID-19 for their own peace of mind and safety.”

Janet Reed, R.N. NCPS Nursing Supervisor, trained last spring to be able to trace students who may have COVID-19 and prevent the spread. “We just look at who they have had contact with. We start with at home in their family, anyone who lives in their house,and then we look at school. We look at who they eat lunch with, who is in their classrooms. With the recent cases we were looking at seating plans. With hybrid most of the students were not with close contact but there was one classroom where it was a little close,” she said.

 “Then we have to look at do they have a job after school, who are their friends, what do they do on the weekends, do they play a sport, and just keep looking at who are the people who might have met that criteria of closer than 6 feet for more than fifteen minutes cumulative. If there is a sports team we take the roster, and we start with a wider tent but if someone some people can say I didn’t even go to practice we take them off. It’s a big job.”

The Nurses are taking precautions to keep their office clean and separating potential COVID-19 cases with other health related issues. The plexiglass between their desks, temperature check when you walk into the office, and isolation room specifically for people experiencing COVID-19 symptoms are some of the precautions that they are taking to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in NCHS. They have even changed what they are telling students who come in feeling unwell. “In the pandemic it can’t just be push through, do your best. We got to get you checked out, maybe it’s an alternative diagnostic but we have to know,” Ms. Reed said. 

With uncertainty in what the upcoming months will bring, the nurses are doing their best to keep everyone at NCHS safe and healthy. “You have to take it day by day,” Ms. Reed said. “As nurses, we didn’t cause this, we didn’t choose this, but we are just here to help.”

The 3 F’s, an idea presented by Ms. Reed, have become the mantra of the Nurses at NCHS as they navigate through being on the frontline of the pandemic.  “All we can do is continue to follow social distancing, wear masks, wash your hands and try your hardest not to spread the virus,” Ms. Imbrogno said. “We follow the 3 F’s; Be fearless, flexible, and fluid.”