The City School District of Albany was notified Tuesday of four new confirmed COVID-19 cases in the district. None of these cases is associated with the voluntary COVID-19 testing the district is conducting, and the Albany County Health Department has identified no additional contacts with any of the new cases reported Tuesday.
One case is associated with a prekindergarten classroom at Delaware Community School. This individual was last in the building Dec. 23 and is now quarantined at home.
One case is associated with a fourth-grade classroom at Philip J. Schuyler Achievement Academy. This individual was last in the building Dec. 23 and is now quarantined at home.
One case is associated with Sheridan Preparatory Academy. This individual was last in the building Jan. 8 and is now quarantined at home.
Tuesday’s final case is associated with Stephen and Harriet Myers Middle School. This individual has been engaged entirely in a distance learning model and has not been in the building.
All potentially impacted individuals have been contacted at each building; the health department has indicated that there are no other steps necessary for any of the buildings at this time.
The district has tested 90 in-person students and employees Jan. 11-12 since beginning its voluntary COVID-19 testing program, with no positive results from any of those tests. The district's goal is to test 10% of all in-person individuals by Jan. 22 to help do its part to slow the spread of the disease in our community. You can visit our COVID-19 testing page for more information, including an online consent form for parents and guardians who wish to have their children including in voluntary testing.
Health and safety procedures at all district buildings continue to include cleaning and sanitizing nightly. We will continue with these procedures, and also will continue to follow all required COVID-19 precautions (pre-arrival symptom screening and temperature screening for students and staff, wearing masks, hand hygiene, social distancing of 6 feet or more, and other precautions).
We also would like to remind everyone of steps you can take to help be safe:
- Maintain a social distance of at least 6 feet at all times from those you don’t live with.
- Always wear a mask that covers both the mouth and nose when you are out of your home.
- Wash hands with soap and water frequently when out of your home. If you cannot use soap and water, use alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
- Don’t touch the eyes, nose or mouth unless your hands are clean.
- Complete the Student COVID-19 Screener each day before your child leaves for school, available daily via the email address on file for parents and guardians. More information is available from the Students/Families dropdown menu above.
- DO NOT SEND YOUR CHILD TO SCHOOL WHEN THEY ARE SICK OR HAVE SYMPTOMS:
- Signs of COVID-19 are: fever, fatigue/tiredness, muscle/body aches or pains, congestion, cough, runny nose, shortness of breath/difficulty breathing, nausea/vomiting or diarrhea, headache, loss of taste or smell, rash, feeling sick or unwell in any way.
- You can get a COVID-19 test by calling the New York State Department of Health COVID-19 Hotline at (888) 364-3065, or Whitney M. Young Jr. Health Center at (518) 407-0172 or (518) 465-4771.
- You also can find resources here:
