Las Vegas elementary school reports 2 COVID-19 cases

An east Las Vegas elementary school has reported two COVID-19 exposures this week affecting an unknown number of students.

A letter sent from Lynch Elementary School, 4850 Kell Lane, said the school was notified of a positive case on Wednesday and instructed parents that their children would begin distance learning on Thursday.

Another letter dated Friday also said the school learned of a positive case that day and that students would begin distance learning on Monday.

Students can return to the school in one of two ways: either 10 days after the exposure date if they do not develop any symptoms, or eight days after the exposure if they can provide a negative test on or after the fifth day of quarantine and remain asymptomatic.

The earliest students who don’t get tested could return is May 10.

The letters do not indicate how many students and staff might be affected.

According to the Clark County School District’s COVID-19 dashboard, the school has had fewer than 10 cases reported this year — a designation the district uses to indicate that there has been at least one case, but that the number won’t be released for privacy purposes.

However, data for the dashboard is delayed. The dashboard also does not differentiate between COVID-19 cases in students and staff learning in person versus those at home.

Districtwide, the dashboard showed 150 cases for the month of March and 286 cases for the month of April as of Thursday. The district reported in late March that nearly 100,000 students in all grade levels had returned to campus.

Of the 286 cases in April, 144 have been in elementary schools, which reopened for full-time in-person learning on April 6. Another 54 cases were reported at the middle school level and 70 at the high school level, along with 16 cases in the central office and fewer than 10 at middle school/high school combinations.

According to the dashboard, there have been 30 cases reported among students and staff this week, including 16 cases at the elementary level and fewer than 10 in each of the other categories.

The Review-Journal has requested information from the district regarding how many students and staff have been quarantined since the start of in-person learning.

Contact Aleksandra Appleton at aappleton@reviewjournal.com at 702-383-0218 or aappleton@reviewjournal.com. Follow @aleksappleton on Twitter.