A student and an employee at a private school in Montgomery County, Maryland, tested positive for coronavirus this week.
Archdiocese of Washington spokesperson Paula Gwynn Grant told WTOP that a second-grade student at Holy Redeemer Catholic School in Kensington had tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday after showing mild symptoms on Tuesday.
Grant said this was after an employee had already tested positive earlier in the week.
The school community was updated by Holy Redeemer’s principal that the student is now symptom-free and healthy, per Grant, but the class and the employee remain quarantined based on guidance from the Montgomery County Health Department.
As a result, Holy Redeemer’s second grade students have been doing virtual learning this past week and will do so until Sept. 18.
The opening status of private schools in Montgomery County was the subject of a lawsuit filed by parents and an executive order by Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan in August.
County health officer Dr. Travis Gayles had initially issued an order to keep nonpublic schools closed to begin the school year.
Gayles would later rescind the directive after a memo from the Maryland state health secretary said county health officers are prohibited from closing such schools in a “blanket” manner.
Gov. Larry Hogan, who issued an executive order to block the move, applauded Montgomery County’s decision to rescind the directive.
The original order was the target of a lawsuit by parents and families of the archdiocese, but its hearing in court was canceled, though the case remains pending to see how Gayles “treats “religious and private schools going forward,” according to lawyer Timothy Maloney.
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