PORTLAND, Maine — Four COVID-19 cases have been reported in the city’s public school system, and 65 students and staff must quarantine for two weeks as the coronavirus pandemic surges to record levels in Maine and elsewhere.
While the virus has not reached “outbreak” levels there, Portland school officials and the state Center for Disease Control and Prevention identified isolated cases among students or staff at Rowe Elementary School, King and Lyman Moore middle schools and Portland High School, according to Superintendent Xavier Botana.
Thirty-four students and 10 staff members at Portland High School and 10 students and 11 staff members at Lyman Moore will quarantine for two weeks as a precaution because they had close contact with someone who was exposed or tested positive, district spokesperson Tess Nacelewicz said Monday.
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Positive cases at King and Rowe schools had no exposure to classroom settings, officials found.
Botana said the pandemic has challenged the school system, but that it can maintain “safe and healthy learning environments if we continue to strictly adhere to our safe practices.”
“To date, we have had no positive cases originate in school so we are confident that our approach is working well overall,” Botana said.
Maine set new records for positive coronavirus cases on multiple consecutive days in the past week. There were 356 active cases in Cumberland County as of Monday, according to the CDC, the highest number of cases among any county in the state.
Portland schools tests students experiencing virus symptoms, as well as students and staff traced to an exposure who don’t have symptoms.
The Portland school district uses contact tracing and quarantine methods to respond to instances of one or two students testing positive for COVID-19, teachers or staff within any of its 14 schools, as part of its pandemic protocol. Three or more cases within one school is considered to be an outbreak, resulting in a temporary closure and switch to remote learning.
The CDC reported open outbreaks in three schools in York County and one in Somerset County school on Oct. 29.
Portland schools began the semester in mid-September following a hybrid model of remote and in-person instruction after extensive planning by school officials.