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It is our priority to keep you informed of incidents related to safety. We want to make you aware that 2 students or staff members have been diagnosed with COVID-19. These individuals are remote; therefore, there was not a need to contract trace within our school building.
Each case of COVID-19 is interviewed by public health. As part of this public health investigation:
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The person diagnosed is being kept home from school until they are no longer infectious.
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The person’s activities when they could have spread COVID-19 were assessed.
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The people who were close contacts of the person with COVID-19 are instructed to stay home from school for 10 days after the exposure. This is called quarantine.
If you have any concerns about your health, we encourage you to contact the Denver Health School Based Health Center at 303-602-8958 (or your primary care provider) for further evaluation and possible testing.
Same as last week:
Denver Public Schools has been working tirelessly toward the safe and continuous reopening of in-person learning at our schools. As we begin to return to in-person learning, we are working to monitor and screen for COVID-19 across students, faculty, and staff.
We are partnering with COVIDCheck Colorado to provide free, fast and convenient COVID-19 testing to all faculty, staff and students, not just those who may be experiencing symptoms. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 40% of people who are infected with the coronavirus show no symptoms. Regular testing is a critical step toward the safe and continued re-opening of our schools. Through our partnership with COVIDCheck, we are piloting in-person student testing at 6 DPS High Schools: East, John F. Kennedy High School, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Early College, Northfield, TJ, West Early College/West Leadership Academy.
Each week, a segment of our population of students (who have opted in to the program) will be tested by DPS nursing staff. The in-school tests are done using saliva and results will be available within 24-36 hours.
The saliva protocol that COVIDCheck Colorado uses is SalivaDirect™, which is an FDA Emergency Use Authorization-approved PCR testing protocol. The Yale School of Public Health developed the protocol; the NBA used SalivaDirect™ in “the bubble” to test its players, and the protocol is being rolled out to other organizations, institutions, and populations around the country. Yale’s studies have shown that SalivaDirect™ PCR is as sensitive as a nasal PCR test and is both more convenient and comfortable for participants than a nasal swab.
If you would like to sign your student up for this ongoing testing program, please do so now. It’s free, fast, and convenient: https://www.primarybio.com/l/dpsosscreening. If you’d like to see the registration process, here’s a video that goes through each step. If your student has been exposed to COVID-19 or is experiencing symptoms, they must be tested at a COVIDCheck Colorado drive-up testing site. Please register for that one-time test here: https://www.primarybio.com/a/denverps.
Thank you for helping us keep our students, staff, and the broader community safe.
All students coming into the school building must take and pass the health screener here.
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