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Chambers County School District students attended school virtually last week on Thursday and Friday so as to reduce the transmission of COVID-19. On Monday, CCSD Superintendent Casey Chambley said the school system still planned to have students return to school in person on Tuesday after Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

He said the school system had been receiving calls from parents reporting cases of COVID-19.

“However, we always get better communication when we are in school,” Chambley said. “We will have a better idea tomorrow how our numbers look. If the trend continues, it looks as if our numbers are trending down a touch.”

Chambley said masks will be required as they have been since students returned to school on Wednesday, Jan. 5.

“We cannot come out of masks until our numbers reported to the ADPH school dashboard [are] below nine,” he said.

On Friday, Lead Nurse Loretta Cofield said there were 250 students absent, 83 of whom had tested positive for COVID-19. 27 teachers were out, and 14 had tested positive for COVID-19.

“We are receiving reports several times a day from parents and staff who were exposed and now have symptoms and testing positive,” said a Facebook post by CCSD with Cofield’s update. “The majority of these people are exposed at home. The CDC recommends wearing masks and isolating the positive individual at home. If everyone in the family is in close contact with the positive family member, watch for symptoms of COVID and get tested if they start showing symptoms.”

The post said COVID-positive individuals returning to school after quarantining for five days should be fever-free for at least 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medication. Additionally, it said anyone with a moderate to severe case of COVID should quarantine for 10 days.

“People who cannot wear a mask should continue to quarantine the full 10 days,” it said.

The post requested that parents keep school nurses updated on COVID cases in their families.