East Greenwich Superintendent Tests Positive For Coronavirus

EAST GREENWICH, RI — Supt. Alexis Meyer revealed at Tuesday night's virtual school committee meeting that she has tested positive for COVID-19.

Meyer's positive test comes just over one week after East Greenwich schools resumed in-person classes on Jan. 11.

At the meeting, Meyer told school committee members that the number of COVID-19 cases in the district has doubled since Dec. 17. A total of 72 students and 22 employees have tested positive for the virus, according to data from the Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH), numbers that have significantly increased from the 36 students and 14 employees who had tested positive as of mid-December.

Meyer also told the committee that all 193 employees who were testing in the first pool of the district's asymptomatic testing program were negative and only one out of over 200 student-athletes who were tested received a positive result.

However, Meyer warned that the tests are only accurate for that moment and the virus can be contracted immediately after being tested or develop long after exposure.

“The purpose of conducting asymptomatic testing in a district is to gauge the extent of the virus that is existing in your district, but I can tell you an example of somebody that in our district that – it’s not me – tested negative on Binax on Tuesday but was positive on Thursday, so it’s a really short window," said Meyer.

East Greenwich has experienced a total of 1,148 COVID-19 cases as of Wednesday afternoon, according to RIDOH data.