MEMPHIS, Tenn. — An employee at Treadwell Elementary and Middle schools was placed on a cautionary quarantine after contact with a patient who tested positive for coronavirus, the school district said Monday.
Shelby County Schools said the district confirmed late Sunday evening that the employee had been placed on a 14-day quarantine directed by the Shelby County Health Department.
Health Department officials said Monday there was no risk to the community, or to students and faculty. More than 70 people are currently in quarantine in the community.
The employee has not shown any symptoms following the contact, SCS said, and there is no expected risk to school-age children at this time.
“We want to fight fear with knowledge and facts,” SCS Superintendent Joris Ray said during a news conference Monday afternoon.
Ray said that closing schools would be disruptive and, at present, all schools would remain open.
“At this time there has been no decision to close schools. All Shelby County Schools are open for learning and instruction,” Ray said.
However, all international field trips in the district had been cancelled, he said.
SCS officials said there would be a media briefing on the situation every Wednesday.
In a letter to parents, the school district said it was prepared for an event like this. The district said its plan of action would provide the following additional resources:
• Providing CDC-approved cleaning agents to every school
• Ensuring all bathrooms are continuously stocked with soap and paper towels, and encouraging students and staff to wash hands frequently
• Ensuring principals and school nurses have the resources and guidance needed to detect and report symptoms exhibited at school and provide approved health guidance for any affected individuals
• Working in close partnership with the SCHD and continuing to update our protocols as the situation evolves, and
• Providing ongoing communication to families, staff and our school communities as new developments are learned.
Several parents outside Treadwell Elementary on Monday morning said they hadn’t heard anything about the situation, and wouldn’t have brought their children to school if they had known.
That worry led many parents to drive back to the school and pull their children out of class.
The district’s website, scsk12.org, briefly shut down Monday morning. As parents looked for answers they couldn’t immediately find online, they were forced to call the school district, where phone lines were busy.
Also Monday, the Germantown Municipal School District announced that parents of some Germantown students had voluntarily self-quarantined their children after they traveled outside the country and were potentially exposed to COVID-19.
The district said it had heard from parents of students at Dogwood Elementary School, Forest Hill Elementary School, and Houston Middle School.
The district stressed that at this time, they do not have any symptoms and have not tested positive for COVID-19.
“We appreciate those parents communicating with the district and encourage others to follow their example,” GMSD said in a release.
The first case of COVID-19 in Shelby County was confirmed Sunday morning by county and city officials. It was the third confirmed case in Tennessee.
Shelby County Health Department officials have said the risk to the public at large is low, but people who had come into contact with the patient would be placed on quarantine and monitored daily for symptoms.
Dr. Alisa Haushalter with the Shelby County Health Department said that quarantine was less serious than isolation. She explained on WREG’s Live at 9 Monday that quarantine meant a person had come in contact with someone who had tested positive for coronavirus, but had not shown any symptoms themselves.
Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris said he had been in contact with the superintendent of schools on the matter.
Harris also said that the one confirmed patient diagnosed with COVID-19, who is at Baptist Hospital, was recovering.
