Person tied to Las Vegas charter school under coronavirus quarantine
According to a letter sent to parents from Explore Knowledge Academy, a “member of the EKA family” is under quarantine because of potential exposure to the coronavirus.
The letter, which was posted to Facebook and forwarded to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, was sent from the charter school on Friday. It emphasized that the Southern Nevada Health District does not believe there was “direct exposure” to the school, its staff, students or families.
“Please understand that we are seeking, receiving and following the guidelines, guidance and recommendations provided to us by SNHD to keep all members of the EKA families safe,” the letter said.
It was unclear if an employee, student or family member is the person under quarantine.
The charter school is under the Clark County School District, not the State Public Charter School Authority. Both agencies said Thursday that there were no confirmed cases of COVID-19 among their students.
The Southern Nevada Health District announced that the first presumptive positive COVID-19 patient in Nevada has a child in school. The school district and charter school authorities have not addressed whether that child attended one of their schools.
Dr. Fermin Leguen, the district’s acting health officer, did not identify the school or the district, but said the student was being kept out of school and monitored and had not shown symptoms of the disease.
The Review-Journal on Thursday requested additional information from CCSD and charter authority officials about whether they have been contacted by the health district and whether there has been any known exposure to coronavirus within their schools.
Neither would expand on their statements on Thursday.
The letter from the charter school stated that the health district has “advised us to continue to perform our cleaning and sanitizing procedures and to continue to emphasize proper handwashing.”
The school, which is located at 5871 Mountain Vista St., received approval for a conditional charter from the Nevada State Department of Education in March 2001 and from its sponsor, Clark County School District, in April of 2002, according to its website.
A spokeswoman for the school district did not immediately respond to request for comment on Saturday morning.
When asked for comment about the person under quarantine, Southern Nevada Health District spokeswoman Jennifer Sizemore said in an email Saturday morning that “we would not provide potentially identifying information about someone.”
“I can tell you that asymptotic close contacts of a confirmed case are not considered a risk to others,” she said.
Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.