MIDDLETOWN, Pa. — Some members of the Middletown High School football team have been quarantined for 14 days after a player tested positive for COVID-19, superintendent Dr. Lori Suski said Monday in a letter to parents and guardians.
A support staff employee at the high school also tested positive for COVID-19, Suski said. But the employee was last at the school on August 17, had no contact with students, and limited contact with other employees, she added.
"Most importantly, ((no one was) within six feet of the infected individual, thus they do not need to be quarantined," Suski said.
In the case of the football team, certain members who may have been in close contact with the player who tested positive will have to be quarantined for two weeks "out of an abundance of caution," Suski said.
The affected student athletes and their families will be contacted by the school's athletic director or the team's coaching staff, Suski said.
"If the athletic director or coach does not call you, then that means that your child was not in close contact with the infected individual and will not need to quarantine," she said.
The Middletown School District's physician said it is not necessary for players who haven't been contacted by the coach or athletic director to be tested for COVID-19, but parents or guardians should monitor their child for any COVID-19 symptoms.
"If symptomatic, consult with your child’s personal care physician for his/her recommendation regarding the need to get tested," Suski said. "Please note that even if your child were to be tested and the result be negative, they must still quarantine for the full 14 day period which ends on September 4."
Middletown begins school next week, so the quarantined players must remain home and do full remote learning until the quarantine period ends, Suski said. Those students will be able to return to their regularly assigned high school cohort effective Tuesday, September 8.
"They will be able to return to football practice on Friday, September 4, which is the end of the quarantine period," Suski said. (There is no school at Middletown on Sept. 4 or Sept. 7 due to the Labor Day holiday weekend.)
