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Three more Midway High School students test positive for COVID-19

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Midway ISD notified parents Monday of three new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on campus.

The confirmed cases are of a 12th grade student, an 11th grade student, and a 9th grade student at Midway High School.

The total number of cases in the district is six, which includes one staff member at Woodway Elementary and five students at Midway High School.

The three new cases at Midway High School are not related to last week’s two positive cases, according to a district spokesperson.

“As a community, we must all do our part to be vigilant about following preventive actions – inside and outside – both on- and off-campus,” said Superintendent Dr. George Kazanas. “We implore our students, parents, and staff members to wear cloth face coverings, physically distance, and practice good hygiene. We can only implement safety measures and protocols for the time students are in school. We need help from families and through personal responsibility in staying safe the rest of the time outside of school, especially looking ahead to the upcoming Labor Day weekend.”

If your child was found to be in close contact, you will be contacted more directly and personally.

What is considered “close contact” or “directly exposed”?

There are multiple elements to consider including confirmation of the virus existing, proximity to the virus, timing of when a person is contagious, and lack of prevention measures like masks or physical distancing.

According to the Texas Education Agency, close contact is defined as:

  1. Being directly exposed to infectious secretions (e.g., being coughed on); or
  2. Being within 6 feet for a largely uninterrupted or sustained extended contact period throughout the course of a day of approximately 15 minutes; however, additional factors like case/contact masking (i.e., both the infectious individual and the potential close contact have been consistently and properly masked), ventilation, presence of dividers, and case symptomatology may affect this determination.

Either (a) or (b) defines close contact if it occurred during the infectious period of the case, defined as two days prior to symptom onset to 10 days after symptom onset. In the case of asymptomatic individuals who are lab or test-confirmed with COVID-19, the infectious period is defined as two days prior to the confirming test and continuing for 10 days following the confirming test.

Do you need to keep your child home from school?

Unless you are notified of close contact or exposure, your child has not been placed in quarantine. He or she may continue to come to school, but please carefully screen your child for symptoms each morning before coming to school. If he or she has any symptoms, please keep your child home and contact your child’s doctor.

Midway ISD says they believe in transparency and respects the right of parents to be informed of their children’s proximity to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We consider this letter to be in line with our standard notification protocol of what we typically send for cases like influenza, strep, RSV, or lice. While you may have a strong emotional reaction to this information, please know that there is no need for alarm, only vigilance in monitoring symptoms and emphasizing safety procedures like properly wearing face coverings, hand washing and physical distancing."