District officials said Monday that a second positive case of COVID-19 virus has been identified at New Canaan High School.
Close contacts already are undergoing quarantine and the district is now doing full contact tracing for the affected individual, according to Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi.
As with the first case disclosed Sunday, it wasn’t clear from an email Luizzi sent to public schools families whether the affected person is a member of the staff, faculty or student body. He or she is part of the “Y cohort,” Luizzi said—a reference to one of two divisions the district has used for the student body as it phases in at the start of this academic year. This week, that cohort is not scheduled to attend school in-person until Thursday, so “we have time today to identify and notify any close contacts in need of quarantine prior to their return to school on Thursday,” he said in the email.
“The mitigation strategies implemented at NCHS continue to be strong, and opening in a hybrid structure helps us to quickly identify those close contacts, isolate them through quarantine and work to contain the spread of the virus in our school and community,” he said.
News of the positive cases at the high school comes as the community adapts to living with COVID-19 virus in new circumstances with the start of the academic year. A large number of New Canaan families have called for state officials to allow for 11-on-11 full contact football this fall, while groups of young people can be seen after school downtown, gathered in areas such as the terraces in front of Starbucks without wearing masks or social distancing.
Police have declined to say whether they will enforce a $100 fine, as allowed by a new order from Gov. Ned Lamont—for those violating a prior order requiring “any person in a public place in Connecticut, whether indoors or outdoors” to “cover their mouth and nose with a mask or cloth face-covering” when within “a safe social distance of approximately six feet from every other person.” The chief of police declined to comment on the matter when reached by NewCanaanite.com. (The new order also allows for a $250 fine for those attending large, unsanctioned gatherings and $500 for organizing, hosting or sponsoring such events.)
District officials learned of the second case out of NCHS shortly after notifying the New Canaan Public Schools community about the first one, Luizzi said.
Here’s the district’s continuously updated operations guide, including information on health monitoring and containment, and here’s the state’s guidance on addressing positive cases in schools
NCPD should enforce the mask mandate with fines. Too many kids downtown not wearing masks. Not to mention the drinking parties that happen on the weekends. Those fines should also be enforced. No one wants to go back into lockdown.
People tend to forget how isolation works: If there is a student with positive COVID 19, those who have had prolonged contact have to go into quarentine. Those people could include other students, teammates, coaches and family members; all who will have to miss work or school, sports activities etc.
It is time to enforce the fines for not wearing masks in public to protect the community. The gatherings outside Gofer ice cream are large and close in contact with young people not wearing masks. The hug e seating is now expanded to the sidewalk and you cannot walk on Main Street without coming in close contact with these students.
It’s a shame that these kids are not taking this seriously enough. Can be seen all around town — Starbucks, Gofer, Zumbach’s. Presumably it’s the example they are getting at home from their parents. If they want to return to some sort of normalcy and continue to go to school with their friends this year, then they should understand wearing a mask and keeping group gatherings to a minimum is necessary at this point in time with no vaccine available or herd immunity reached. Not even October yet, and 2 positive cases and 55 people quarantining from the high school alone, not to mention their family members. The latest figures can be found on the Board of Education website: https://sites.google.com/ncps-k12.org/chartingourcourse
I’m not one for big government oversight, but if it takes a fine to get someone to wear a mask, then so be it right now. This is a unique time in history and we need a collective response to keep the community safe and out of another lockdown.
I agree that many of our teens are gathering without masks, as these replies indicate. I also see large numbers of dining patrons outdoors. This is allowed, and once you are at your table, no mask is necessary. So, you are all in the clear, and I won’t argue for fining these people, as you are withing your rights. I just thought that a town as civil as New Canaan would have more people who’d put their mask on when the server approaches the table. People have been breathing on their servers (who do wear masks to protect the diners) since outdoor dining has been allowed. These workers go back to their homes and families. They matter too. “We are all in this together”, right? Signed, a former bartender and waiter.