Pueblo County issued the following announcement on Aug. 27.
The Pueblo Department of Public Health and Environment created School Response Teams of public health employees to work with school districts to respond and immediately begin an investigation after a confirmed COVID-19 case is identified or reported.
“To protect students, staff, and the school community in Pueblo, each school district was assigned a public health nurse at PDPHE as a contact to report COVID-19 concerns and cases,” stated Randy Evetts, public health director at the Pueblo Department of Public Health and Environment. Evetts added, “Our goal is to support schools to continue education in Pueblo as it is important to the academic, social, and behavioral growth of our youth.”
PDPHE’s School Response Teams are made of public health employees including nurses, environmental health specialists, regional epidemiologist, and communications specialists. The School Response Teams were created in early August to address the needs of the schools.
When a school district notifies the public health’s School Resource Teams, public health will work with the school district to begin investigating, contact tracing and communicate to the school staff, parents, and Pueblo community.
When a COVID-19 case is confirmed, local health officials will then release only the age, gender, and county of residence of the cases to the public and the media. Public health will not release the name of the school for individual COVID-19 cases.
If public health officials determine through the investigation that there is a greater risk to the community at large, the community will be notified.
Public health will announce outbreaks at schools. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment deems an outbreak as two or more confirmed COVID-19 cases in a facility or group (two unrelated-households) with onset in a 14-day period.
The investigation of a confirmed positive COVID-19 case involves a public health employee speaking with the individual and determining who they may have had contact within the 48 hours preceding the onset of symptoms. Anyone who is determined to have been in close contact (within 6 feet for greater than 15 minutes) with the individual who has COVID-19 during that 48-hour period will be contacted by public health officials and advised to self-quarantine.
For definitions of words that will be used by public health in response to COVID-19 in schools (confirmed cases, COVID symptoms, isolation, etc.), please view CDPHE school guidance document https://covid19.colorado.gov/cases-and-outbreaks-child-care-schools#DefiningCOVID. Please note these definitions evolve and to view the website for the most up to date definition.
Help Protect Pueblo from COVID-19
To protect the Pueblo community and the most vulnerable, everybody has a responsibility to:
Follow the Governor’s Safer at Home and in the Vast, Great Outdoors order.
Follow the Governor’s mask order.
Minimize social activities and being physically close to other people.
Isolate yourself if you feel symptoms of COVID-19. Symptoms are new loss of taste or smell, headache, sore throat, cough, fever or chills, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fatigue, muscle or body aches, congestion or runny nose, nausea or vomiting , and diarrhea. This list does not include all possible symptoms. Visit cdc.gov for the list of symptoms as it continues to be updated with more information learned about COVID-19.
Seek preventative and routine care through your primary care provider and use the emergency room when medically necessary.
Wash your hands with soap regularly.
Cough or sneeze into elbow or tissue.
Stay home when you’re sick.
Avoid touching eyes, nose, and mouth.
Avoid close contact with sick people.
Clean surfaces frequently touched.
Original source can be found here.
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