Two cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in the Amherst Central School District, providing a glimpse of what’s in store for schools around the region during a new year still only days old.
The school district didn’t say if those infected were students, staff or teachers.
The two cases, along with one this week at a Buffalo charter school, are among the first confirmed Covid-19 cases of the new school year in Erie County – but certainly not the last. Districts and health officials concede more cases are inevitable with most districts reopening this week for in-person instruction, albeit at a reduced capacity.
The Erie County Health Department notified officials in the Amherst district on Thursday night that a person who tested positive was in Amherst Middle School on Tuesday and Wednesday - but not on Thursday, the first day students attended, Superintendent Anthony Panella said in a letter to parents on Friday.
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A day prior, on Wednesday, the county Health Department had notified officials about a positive case in the district, although that individual did not "physically attend any of our school buildings" and would stay away until cleared to return, according to the letter.
The superintendent disclosed no other information about the cases.
"All individuals who may have been in close contact, as defined by the ECDOH, with a confirmed case will be contacted directly with pertinent information and next steps," Panella stated in his letter.
New York State has set up a dashboard to keep track of Covid-19 cases in K-12 schools, but the website had not yet gone live on Friday.
"I am providing you with information about confirmed cases of COVID-19 to be transparent and thorough because the state’s Dashboard for COVID-19 Data in Schools is not yet operational," the superintendent said in his letter.
"However," the letter said, "once the dashboard is operational we will not be sending out emails regarding each confirmed case. We will continue to work closely with the ECDOH on contact tracing of all confirmed cases."
The superintendent's office referred requests for comment to the letter on the district's website.
In Buffalo's Kensington-Bailey neighborhood, Westminster Community Charter School reopened with a hybrid model of learning on Sept. 1. School officials confirmed on Thursday that a student at the school had tested positive for the virus.
The other children in the same cohort with that student are currently quarantining and learning remotely from home while monitoring for any symptoms. Westminster, meanwhile, is proceeding with its plans for the school year.
School districts across Erie County have been working with health officials on developing a protocol on how to handle cases. That goes as follows:
If a student or school employee tests positive for Covid-19, the health department contacts the infected individual, or their guardian, along with the school.
The county's contact tracers interview that person - or in the case of minors, their parents or guardian - to determine when they may have been infectious and their close contacts during that time, said Kara Kane, public information officer for the Erie County Health Department.
Close contacts are identified as anyone who was within six feet of an infected person for at least 10 minutes, starting two days prior to onset of the illness or testing positive. Those close contacts are notified that they have been exposed and have to quarantine for 14 days from their date of exposure, Kane said.
"With cases in schools, we work with school leaders to identify close contacts in the school and get the contact information to make the notification," Kane said in an email.
"We also are providing schools with lists of individuals in isolation or quarantine as a result of our case investigations to let them know which staff and students are to be excluded from the school," she said.
In addition, the department provides the school with the numbers they need to fill out their daily reporting requirements for the state's Covid-19 dashboard.
