13 Plainview-Old Bethpage Students Contract Coronavirus

PLAINVIEW, NY — Thirteen students in the Plainview-Old Bethpage Central School District recently contracted the coronavirus, officials announced Tuesday.

Five students attend Old Bethpage Elementary School, where there was an outbreak in a third-grade classroom, News 12 reported.

The school district closed buildings Monday and switched to remote learning.

Schools Superintendent Mary O’Meara said there has been an increase in coronavirus cases among students, particularly siblings.

“We are asking families to be extremely vigilant with quarantine orders to help reduce the spread to other families," O'Meara wrote in a letter to the school community. "If there is a case of COVID-19 in a household, all members are required to quarantine unless the infected member can be completely isolated from the rest of the household."

O’Meara said there were “lapses in mask wearing protocols and symptomatic individuals who were in attendance the week before the outbreak," News 12 reported.

The 13 cases were reported at:

• Old Bethpage Elementary School, 5 students
• Stratford Road Elementary School, 4
• Mattlin Middle School, 1
• John F. Kennedy High School, 1
• Plainview-Old Bethpage Middle School, 1
• Pasadena Elementary School, 1

Students and staff members who had close contact with the infected students were ordered to quarantine.