NMPED COVID-19 update:

SANTA FE – The Public Education Department announced today 10 new positive cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours.

Rapid response has been initiated, and all pertinent information has been verified with the schools and school districts.

The following new cases have been reported:

• Three cases in Bernalillo County. All three infected individuals are staff members who were last on school property
•  Sept. 3 and Sept. 23 (two individuals). All staff members and the parents and guardians of all students in the affected school have been notified of the positive cases.
• One case in Chaves County. The infected individual is a staff member who was last on school property Sept. 29.
• The school is in remote learning mode. All staff members and the parents and guardians of all students in the affected school have been notified of the positive case.
• One case in Curry County. The infected individual is a staff member who was last on school property Sept. 29. The school is in remote learning mode. All staff members and the parents and guardians of all students in the affected school have been notified of the positive case.
• One case in Doña Ana County. The infected individual is a staff member who was last on school property Sept. 10. The school is in remote learning mode. All staff members and the parents and guardians of all students in the affected school have been notified of the positive case.
• Two cases in Eddy County. The infected individuals are both students. One was last on school property for small-group learning on Sept. 24. The other was last on school property for small-group learning Sept. 25. All staff members and the parents and guardians of all students in the affected school have been notified of the positive cases.
• Two cases in Hidalgo County. The infected individuals are both staff members who were last on school property Sept. 23 and Sept. 24 respectively. All staff members and the parents and guardians of all students in the affected schools have been notified of the positive cases.

All “close contacts” will be informed of the positive case(s) and instructed to quarantine for 14 days. Affected classrooms and facilities will be cleaned and disinfected.

Staff must be tested if symptomatic or a “close contact”; however, staff members will not be required to present a negative test result in order to return to work. Symptomatic staff may return to work after 10 days plus 24 hours after the fever is gone and COVID-19 symptoms have improved. Asymptomatic staff who have been “close contacts” may return to work after a 14-day quarantine.

The PED has collected this data since Aug. 17; since then, 205 total cases have been reported in 107 schools. Of those, 144 have been staff members and 61 have been students. 

For additional information about COVID-19 safety in schools, please visit: https://bit.ly/SafeSchoolsNM.