One day after reopening, 4 Durham classrooms shift back to remote learning when students test positive for virus

One Southwest Elementary School student started showing COVID-19 symptoms at school Monday, so administrators asked that the family be tested for the virus, Durham Public Schools spokesman Chip Sudderth said. Those tests revealed a second infected student, who also attends Southwest Elementary, at 2320 Cook Road, he said.

The cases affected three classrooms – Sudderth noted that older students move among classrooms for different subjects – and students and staff in those classrooms have been advised to be tested for the virus.

Students who rode Bus 185 on Monday afternoon also will be shifted back to remote learning for 10 days and also have been advised to be tested, Sudderth said.

The number of affected students wasn't clear Tuesday, but Sudderth said each of the three classrooms had fewer than 10 students.

"We can still operate the rest of the school. We are just closing the three classrooms," he said. "The safety measures we put in place – the social distancing, the masking, vaccinations, high-quality filters, things like that – those are all what we use to help protect students and staff."

Similarly, a staffer at Club Boulevard Elementary School, at 400 W. Club Blvd., tested positive for coronavirus, so a third-grade classroom has been closed there and students shifted to remote learning for 10 days, he said.

Thousands of Durham elementary students return to in-person instruction

Durham Public Schools said it is working with the Durham County Department of Public Health to contact anyone who came into close contact with either of the two students and the staffer.

"When the decision was made that Durham needed to open, and as the state legislature and the governor were making moves for schools to reopen, we recognized that we are still, even with vaccines, going to be living with COVID-19 in our communities for some time," Sudderth said. "This is what we do whenever COVID-19 comes into a school. We will take every step that we need to to make sure that it goes no further."

Dr. Ibukun Akinboyo, an infectious disease specialist in the Duke University School of Medicine's pediatrics department, said parents shouldn't be overly concerned about the school-related cases.

"Just knowing how this virus spreads suggests that it wasn’t the fact that people were in school that, all of a sudden, this test was positive. It’s only been a day," Akinboyo said. "As long as we see cases in the community, there is a chance we could see cases come into school in person. We should not see spread in schools if mitigation practices are followed."

Dr. Cathi Sander, a family physician who started the City of Medicine Volunteer Medical Corps, is helping ensure those practices are followed.

Her 53 volunteers now work at eight Durham schools, checking temperatures and screening the health of students and staff each morning and waiting with students who have been isolated after feeling sick until their parents arrive.

"We’re just doing stuff that the teachers are expected to do, but they just have so much else on their plate," Sander said. "The vision is that every DPS school that wants some extra assistance and what we’re offering, they can have that. ... They could totally do this on their own. Other schools are opening up without extra help. I just don’t think they should have to. We’re the City of Medicine is what it comes down to."

Anyone with questions about the virus can call the Durham County Department of Public Health at 919-635-8150.