Second Student Tests Positive For Coronavirus In East Hampton

EAST HAMPTON, NY — A second student has tested positive for coronavirus at the John M. Marshall Elementary School in East Hampton.

"We can confirm there is a second case of COVID-19 in a second grader at John Marshall Elementary School," Wendy Geehreng, school nurse and COVID-19 representative for the East Hampton Union Free School District, said. "We have concluded our school investigation and submitted our report to the Suffolk County Department of Health."

The preliminary determination from the investigation and DOH is that no students or staff need to quarantine at the present time, she said.

"We will get a final determination today and this case will go into our New York State COVID report card," Geehreng said Wednesday. "There is one other student in second grade quarantined for a non-school related close contact to this case. The school buildings were closed today and a deep cleaning of John Marshall is currently underway. There were other students out with non-COVID related illnesses, so we took this opportunity as we await final SCDOH to thoroughly clean and disinfect the elementary school. This afternoon we will have the results from DOH and will announce those as well as the plan for reopening."

Earlier, the first student at the John M. Marshall Elementary School in East Hampton tested positive for the coronavirus, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo's COVID-19 report card.

According to Geehreng: "We were alerted by the Suffolk County Department of Health last Thursday evening that an elementary school student had tested positive. We quarantined just under 50 students and staff that evening. They were informed to immediately quarantine pending a Department of Health investigation."

The district supplied all information and reports pertaining to the case, Geehreng said. "Late Friday afternoon, the SCDOH determined that no quarantine was necessary beyond the positive case."

The mitigating factors in the decision, she said, were "the student's very limited time in school combined with our ventilation system, Plexiglass placement, physical distancing and that our students are masked all day save a few mask breaks."