Update: East Haven Tops Area Schools With 88 Cases

EAST HAVEN, CT — By Friday afternoon, the case numbers had increased by five with new positive COVID-19 cases reported in East Haven High School, Tuttle School, Overbrook school, Joseph Melillo Middle School and Momauguin Elementary bringing the new total of coronavirus cases since the beginning of the fall term to 88.

12_18_2020 Positive Case Co... by Ellyn Santiago

Original story:

Just this week alone, eight East Haven Public Schools staff members and four students have tested positive for the coronavirus.

The district is now reporting that since the beginning of the fall term, there are a total of 83 cases, with 150 currently in quarantine. By way of comparison Guilford Public Schools report 56 cases since the beginning of the semester, Madison Public Schools has 57 cases and Branford Public School have 68.

Overbrook Early Learning Center has had the lowest case numbers with none in quarantine. Tuttle School also has no students or educators in quarantine.

School superintendent Erica Forti continues to maintain that none of the cases come from school-based transmission. And says that the East Shore District Health does not recommend closing schools. She has also declined to confirm whether school principals are among those with a positive COVID-19 diagnosis or are in quarantine citing privacy concerns.

On its COVID-19 case tracker, the district reports that the positivity rate among students is close to three percent. It does not report on the positivity rate of teachers.

Forti Thursday night sent a letter to families that, in response to a suggestion by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the district has decided — per local health department recommendation —to reduce the quarantine time from 14 days to 10 days, the same number of days required for someone who has tested positive. She said that anyone who is a close contact with someone who has tested positive, meaning in close contact for more than 15 minutes, cannot return to in-person classes, even with a negative diagnosis, until the 10-day time frame has expired.

East Haven is among a very few nearby districts to have opted for full in-person classes.