Patricia Smith, the Director of Health Services for the Hanover schools, says a potential COVID cluster was identified after a hockey captain’s practice.
Smith said over the course of the pandemic there have been 120 cases of COVID-19 in the community. Twenty-two cases have been identified over the last two weeks, and two recent cases are connected to hockey.
“Just recently we had exposure during hockey captain’s practice where 36 hockey players had to go into quarantine. All of those players were tested today,” said Smith. “So, 48 students are in quarantine or in isolation related to hockey. We have three staff members in quarantine related to hockey. Community-wide, there are six positive cases over the past 14 days related to this hockey outbreak.”
Smith said this is considered a cluster and the state is getting involved. They’ll continue to monitor people connected to the situation. With quarantine they’re hoping it will settle down in the next week or so.
Based on their calculations, Hanover would move into the red COVID designation in the next update from the state.
While it’s unsettling, Smith said they feel that the cases are not connected, and the results are from an outside influence. They’re working with the Fire Department and the Mobile Integrated Health system for testing.
“They’re doing a great job and we’re getting these results in usually overnight. We test someone during the day. In the morning we can see if we have any positives and we can act on that. More importantly, we can allow people back to school,” said Smith. “People who are exhibiting symptoms of allergies — it’s really impossible to know if it’s allergy or if it’s COVID. If you have a stuffy nose, sore throat, and you’re not feeling great. It could be a cold, it could be allergies, or it could be COVID. We’re allowing people to have that confidence to return to school.”
Since the schools reopened, they’ve tested 189 students and staff. This includes individuals with symptoms and people who had close contacts with positive cases. They had three positive results. More people have been tested through an outside testing center, with two positive results.
An earlier version of this article stated there were 120 student cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic started. That was an incorrect number, the number is COVID cases in the town of Hanover.
