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Central Bucks School District sees sudden spike in COVID cases
Central Bucks School District sees a sudden spike in COVID cases, clustered in one elementary school
DOYLESTOWN, Pa. - A suburban elementary school is now dealing with a COVID-19 outbreak and parents want to know what is going on. More than two dozen students in a Central Bucks elementary school recently tested positive for COVID.
"In tracking cases on the district site, it’s been minimal, so seeing a big spike was kind of a surprise," parent VJ Galloway commented.
Galloway dropped his kindergarten son at Gayman Elementary School, in Doylestown, as did Jenn Hellstrom, who also has a fourth grader.
"My daughter is in one of the classes. So, I already knew what was going on. A lot of the parents have been really awesome, they’re keeping everybody in the loop," Hellstrom explained.
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The district notified parents about the outbreak just before the weekend. Sunday, the district’s COVID dashboard site was updated, showing Gayman with 28 new cases in the last week.
"It’s nerve-racking, but I love the school and I feel like they’re doing the best they can," Hellstrom elaborated.
In an email sent to parents, the district said they notified families whose children were in close contact at Gayman and the additional safety measures would go into place, including deep cleaning each night and six-foot social distancing where possible.
"I have one at Cold Spring, two at West, one at Hauling and one at East, so all over the district," Jennifer Krause mentioned.
Some parents worry it will spread from one school to the next. There are 15 elementary schools, five middle and three high schools. District wide, there were 44 reported cases two weeks ago and it nearly doubled last week to 82.
"I’m not sure if it’s just the one school. To be honest, that kind of doesn’t make sense," Krause added.
While the district has been a battleground over mask mandates, one parent said the spike in cases doesn’t worry her.
"I don’t know, I guess I’m not that fearful of it," Tracey Bailey stated.
"It’s scary. My son is not vaccinated. I’m not sure if we’re going to or not," parent Matt Dickter said.
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