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ROY — A large number of students at a Weber County junior high school have been quarantined after one student tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
At least 100 students are in quarantine at Sand Ridge Junior High in Roy, according to Weber School District spokesperson Lane Findlay, who said the student tested positive Monday.
Under health protocols established by the district, city and Weber-Morgan Health Department, as well as the state of Utah, students are required to quarantine for at least 14 days. Each of the 100 students is in online learning.
"It’s a serious situation," Findlay told KSL TV. "We do have higher-risk individuals in our schools — staff members and students. We take these things very seriously. I know it’s an inconvenience for those who have to quarantine. But we anticipated this, we have options available, and we’re really trying to protect people’s health and prevent the spread of this in our schools."
No teachers are under quarantine because they did not have close contact with the student, Findlay added.
The school had nearly 900 students enrolled in classes last year. Sand Ridge remains open to the rest of the students, teachers and faculty, as it is believed the confirmed case is an isolated incident.
Under Utah education guidelines and approved by Gov. Gary Herbert’s office, all students and teachers are required to wear face coverings in class, as well as in all common areas such as school buses, hallways and cafeterias when not eating.
After the positive confirmation, the school and district officials reached out by phone to parents of children who may have been exposed to close contact of the student. Close contact is normally identified as having spent at least 15 minutes within 6 feet of the infected student, or physical contact, with slight variations based on CDC guidelines.
Sand Ridge isn’t the first school to be affected by a rising number of positive cases in Utah schools. On Monday, Alpine School District shifted classes at Pleasant Grove High School to an alternating A-B schedule with online learning supplemented after reporting 67 active cases in the state’s largest district, including 41 students.
A few days later, Utah Military Academy, a public charter school in Lehi with a campus near Camp Williams, moved all classes to an online setting after nine adults connected to the school tested positive for COVID-19. On-campus learning at American Preparatory Academy in Draper was also halted Tuesday after 15 students tested positive for the virus.
Close to 22 positive cases from the Weber-Morgan health department are believed to be from schools in the Weber School District, according to the Ogden Standard-Examiner. None of those are considered to be outbreaks, defined as two or more cases that come from the same origin.
The Weber-Morgan health department reported 3,407 cases of COVID-19 in Weber County as of Thursday, with 29 deaths and 2,877 estimated recovered cases. Of those cases, 247 cases are residents between ages 1 and 14, and 804 are ages 15-24. An additional 76 cases are confirmed in Morgan County.
The 3,478 confirmed positive cases represents 6.5% of the state’s 53,326 cases
The county is among the majority of the state — and all of the Wasatch Front — in the yellow phase, or low levels of COVID-19 restrictions. Salt Lake City will move from orange to yellow starting Friday at 10 a.m.
20 active cases in Jordan School District
Additionally, the Jordan School District sent a letter to parents Thursday clarifying the impact of COVID-19 on district schools, employees and students after the first two weeks of the school year.
The district identified 20 active cases of COVID-19, including 19 students, according to the letter obtained by KSL. Four classes have been quarantined, as authorized by the school board.
The district counts more than 56,000 students and 6,000 employees, as well as more than 10,000 different classes at its area schools, including high schools at Bingham, Copper Hills, Herriman, Mountain Ridge, Riverton, West Jordan, Valley and Southpointe adult high school, as well as the district’s applied technology center.
Granite School District reports 3 cases
A Granite School District spokesperson said Thursday three confirmed cases had been reported at Kearns High School out of 2,300 students.
All three students positive for COVID-19 had been placed in isolation and an exact number of how many had been quarantined wasn’t released.
However, all three cases were from one class, which has since been dismissed for two weeks. It wasn’t immediately available how many students were in the class.
Contributing: Felicia Martinez, KSL TV
