Dear Northwood Community:
Good evening and I apologize for another late message. Since my update on Sunday evening, we have had additional positive cases in the boys’ soccer team. Results from yesterday’s testing clinic of the entire cohort, and supplemental testing conducted at Adirondack Health, have identified seven additional students from that cohort who are positive for COVID-19. The parents/guardians of the positive students have been informed.
All of the positive students are either asymptomatic or have mild symptoms. They have been removed from the dorm and are doing well and will remain in isolation until cleared by the student’s health care provider and will be permitted to return to school activities and the dormitory when cleared by the school’s medical directors.
The Essex County Health Department has been notified of these positive cases and Northwood’s contact tracers will help public health officials with contact tracing tomorrow morning.
The entire dormitory hall has been in quarantine since Sunday evening, and they have had no contact with students outside of the soccer cohort since then. The students in quarantine have been instructed to stay in their rooms, except to use the restrooms on the hall, and to always wear a mask when outside of their rooms. Students on the hall will continue to have their meals delivered to their rooms and they will attend classes remotely.
In accordance with the school’s infectious illness policy, some of our quarantined students have left campus to quarantine at home or with their emergency contact. The rest of the quarantined students remain on campus in the dorm. We will conduct another testing clinic for this cohort later in the week.
While this is an unfortunate development, we are encouraged that we have not observed spread outside of the affected cohort. Our health center staff is diligently monitoring the health of our entire student population. They urge everyone not in quarantine to see a nurse right away if they experience symptoms of COVID-19, to come to the dining room each morning for their health check, and to complete the daily symptom check survey.
The process we have taken is consistent with the “Testing, Tracking, Tracing, Surveillance, and Quarantine” protocol that we will follow whenever there is a positive COVID-19 test on campus or among our students and employees. We continue to follow the guidance of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the New York State Department of Health, and the Essex County Public Health Department.
All Northwood School community members are encouraged to check the Northwood Forward website frequently for updates regarding Northwood’s policies, protocols, and communications.
Sincerely,
John Spear
Assistant Head for School Life