COVID-19 Alert


September 11, 2021

To: Parents or Guardians of children who attend Jemez Mountain Public Schools, we are working with the New Mexico Public Education Department (NMPED) and New Mexico’s Department of Health (NMDOH) because a staff member at our facility or a child who attends our school has tested positive for COVID-19. This letter is to inform you about the next steps necessary to protect your child and our community from COVID-19. Per guidance from both NMPED and NMDOH, we are required to investigate to see who had “close contact” with the staff member or student who tested positive for COVID-19. A “close contact” is defined as being closer than six feet for a cumulative total of fifteen minutes or more over a 24-hour period to a person who is positive for COVID-19. All students and staff who were in “close contact” with the infected individual are encouraged to be tested five days after close contact exposure to the positive COVID-19 individual. Close contacts must self-quarantine at home for 10 days, regardless of the test result, unless the close contact is vaccinated and asymptomatic (no quarantine required). Exception: In the pre-K – 12 setting (including transportation), the close contact definition excludes students who were within 3 to 6 feet of an infected student (laboratory-confirmed or a clinically compatible illness) where » both students were engaged in consistent and correct use of well-fitting face masks; and » other K–12 school prevention strategies (such as universal and correct mask use, physical distancing, increased ventilation) were in place in the K–12 school setting. This exception does not apply to teachers, staff, or other adults in the pre-K – 12 setting. In the meantime, if you or your child begin to develop symptoms of COVID-19, which are fever, chills, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fatigue, muscle or body aches, headache, new loss of smell or taste, sore throat, congestion or runny nose, nausea or vomiting, diarrhea (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/symptoms/testing/symptoms.html), please call your healthcare provider or the COVID-19 Hotline at 1-855-600-3453. It is important that you call ahead to your healthcare provider before presenting to the physician’s office, clinic, urgent care or emergency room so that they can be prepared for your arrival. They may also refer you to a testing clinic. Areas of the school (including buses) in which the COVID-19 positive individual spent time will be cleaned, and those who were close contacts of the positive case will be notified. Please continue to send your child to school unless you are notified that your child was a close contact of a positive COVID-19 individual, your child develops COVID-19 symptoms, or your child has a positive COVID-19 test. Likewise, your household members do not need to quarantine unless your child tests positive for COVID-19 or your household members are identified as a close contact of a positive COVID-19 individual. You may call Ms. Frances Martinez at 575- 638-5491 or NMDOH at (505) 827-0006, if you have questions. Thank you for your support in these efforts.

Sincerely,

Jemez Mountain Public Schools Administration