School officials speak on Fruitland Primary closure after positive covid-19 case

FRUITLAND, Md. –  Beginning on Monday, Fruitland Primary School will be closed for two weeks after a staff person tested positive for covid-19 and another person at the school developed symptoms.

School officials say during the two week closure, students will be doing completely virtual learning. They say after the positive case was identified, they began contact tracing and advising people who had close contact with the person to begin quarantining.

While Fruitland Primary will close, Wicomico County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Donna Hanlin says they’ll monitor cases throughout the county before closing any other schools.

“There isn’t a magic number, there isn’t some metric that I’m watching for, but I am continuing to watch the positivity rate,” Dr. Hanlin said.

In total, school officials say 17 staff and seven students had close contact with the staff member who tested positive. Those people are now quarantining for fourteen days. As for who the staff person was, Doctor Hanlin said she could not confirm whether it was a teacher or other staff.