HdG Elementary Has COVID-19 Cases, State Health Department Says

HAVRE DE GRACE, MD — Havre de Grace Elementary School is one of 95 schools in Maryland and five in Harford County that has reported cases of the coronavirus this week.

Two cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed at Havre de Grace Elementary School, according to the Maryland Department of Health's Sept. 15 update.

Every Wednesday, the department releases a list of which K-12 schools have outbreaks of COVID-19. The data does not include child care facilities or higher education institutions.

Five schools in Harford County, including four public schools, had positive cases of COVID-19, in the last two weeks, according to the Maryland Department of Health's report Wednesday.

There have been 13 cases in Harford County schools as of the Sept. 15 report:

• C. Milton Wright has three cases.
• Harford Technical High School has four cases.
• Havre de Grace Elementary School has two cases.
• Joppatowne High School has two cases.
• St. Margaret School has two cases.

"Anecdotally, this week the transmission that's been reported seems to be within family and household settings — siblings or parents testing positive," Supervisor of Health Services Mary Nasuta said at the Sept. 13 Harford County Board of Education meeting.

"We do have high transmission of COVID in our county right now," Nasuta said.

The coronavirus positivity rate is 5.34 percent in Harford County, according to the state health department's Sept. 16 data. It peaked recently at 7.37 percent on Sept. 11.

Nasuta reported this data within Harford County Public Schools as of Monday, Sept. 13:

• 184 students in isolation
• 268 students in quarantine
• 27 staff in isolation
• 6 staff in quarantine

"We're quarantining less students than we did in the spring because of our universal masking and the K-12 exception," Nasuta said.

Based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance, those within 3 to 6 feet of a student who has been infected are not required to quarantine if they have been wearing masks.

Of staff members, she said: "These lower numbers are due to the number of staff who've been vaccinated."

Since Harford County Public Schools began Sept. 8, there have been 58 rapid tests performed at schools, with three positive; and of 55 PCR tests performed, one was positive, Nasuta said Sept. 13.

"In addition to symptomatic screening, we're also offering those tests to close contact with those we identified in school," Nasuta said.

See the latest data on coronavirus cases in schools.

To be reported in the list, a school must have a classroom/cohort outbreak or a school-wide outbreak.

A classroom/cohort outbreak is defined as at least two confirmed cases of COVID-19 within 14 days that are epidemiologically linked, and are not household contacts.

A schoolwide outbreak is defined as at least three classrooms or cohorts with cases from separate households in 14 days; or 5 percent of unrelated students, teachers or staff (at least 10 who are unrelated) having tested positive for COVID-19 within a two-week period.

Schools will be removed from the list maintained by the Maryland Department of Health when 14 days have passed without any new cases or tests pending.

The "conditions we're under now we really never expected," Superintendent Sean Bulson said at this week's Harford County Board of Education meeting, where he discussed the resurgence of the virus.