Cape Coral Charter Schools use independent contact tracing as 2 COVID-19 cases appear

The Cape Coral Charter School System is dealing with two cases of COVID-19 this week, and school leaders are working to alert anyone who was in contact with those two students – one each in Oasis elementary and middle schools.

School leaders aren’t relying on the Department of Health to contact trace. They have their own teams of contact tracers for each of their four schools, and after two positive cases just two days into the school year, Melanie Klages, head nurse of the charter school system, said that seating charts have made contact tracing much easier.

“I did find it very valuable because as we know, especially with middle and high school, they are traveling throughout the building all the time. They’re here, they’re there, they’re in the gym, they’re in the classroom … and if we don’t know where they were throughout our building and where they were on a bus, then you’re talking about the possibility of several more people being out and this huge component of how many people can possibly be infected?” Klages explained.

If a student tests positive, the school system immediately notifies parents via email. After that, they’ll call anyone who may have been directly exposed. All students who were exposed will have to quarantine for 14 days, then they’re given a date to return – as long as they’re symptom-free and meet CDC requirements.

Ultimately, they knew this was going to happen at some point, and they were ready.

“Because it is in our community, eventually we know that this is going to be in the school system. This is why we have been planning extensively for months,” Klages said.

Klages added that if they didn’t do their own contact tracing and waited for the Department of Health, they believe the spread could be much worse.