COVID-19

Beresford School District COVID-19 Update

Last Updated:  Friday, May 14 @ 10:00 a.m.

District Student/Staff Positive COVID-19 Cases—Active, Total, and Recovered 

School

Active Cases

Total Cases

Recovered Cases

Elementary School

0

35

35

Middle School

0

18

18

High School

0

36

36

District Total

0

89

89

In our District, there have been eighty-nine (89) Positive COVID-19 Student/Staff Cases since the start of the 20-21 school year on August 19, 2020.  All eighty-nine (89) of the students/staff members who tested positive have completed their isolation period, have recovered, and returned to school safely.  There are NO positive COVID-19 cases in our District at this time.

District Positive COVID-19 Cases—Student, Staff, and Total

School

Positive

Student Cases

Positive

Staff Cases

Positive

Total Cases

Elementary School

18

17

35

Middle

School

17

1

18

High

School

27

9

36

District

Total

62

27

89

At our Elementary School, there have been eighteen (18) positive student cases and seventeen (17) positive staff cases for a total of thirty-five (35) cases.  At our Middle School, there have been seventeen (17) positive student cases and one (1) positive staff case for a total of eighteen (18) cases.  At our High School, there have been twenty-seven (27) positive student cases and nine (9) positive staff cases for a total of thirty-six (36) cases.  District-wide, there have been sixty-two (62) positive student cases and twenty-seven (27) positive staff cases for a total of eighty-nine (89) cases.  Based on the District’s eighty-nine (89) positive cases, our District/SD DOH has identified 744 close contacts. 

Please note that these case numbers are based upon our own school information and will be updated at the end of each week.  The positive cases reported are the ones that we have been made aware of at the present time.  Due to federal laws such as HIPAA and FERPA, as well as protecting individual privacy, no other specific information will be shared. 

As a reminder when you see this weekly update, please remember these students/staff confirmed to be positive COVID-19 cases have already been put into “Isolation” by the South Dakota Department of Health/Health Care Professionals.  Any confirmed student/staff Verified Close Contacts associated have already been “Quarantined” by the South Dakota Department of Health/Health Care Professionals.

According to the SD DOH, staff members and students who test positive for COVID-19 are required to self-isolate for ten (10) days from the first onset of symptoms and must be fever free for 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medications.  Staff members and students who are close contacts are recommended to quarantine for fourteen (14) days since their last contact with a person who has COVID-19.  Based on evolving knowledge of COVID-19, the CDC was able to provide alternatives that use additional information, specifically a close contact’s development of symptoms and testing for COVID-19, to decrease the length of quarantine to 7 or 10 days (please see District’s Close Contact Quarantine Practices at https://5il.co/nuw2).

Isolation is for people who are already sick with COVID-19 and quarantine is for people who are not sick, but may have been exposed to COVID-19.  Isolation separates and restricts the movement of sick people so they cannot spread the disease.  Quarantine separates people who were exposed to a contagious disease to see if they become sick and, if so, to prevent them from spreading the disease to others.

You may find out from your family physician or the South Dakota Department of Health that your child has tested positive for COVID-19, which requires Isolation from school.  You may find out that your child is a “Close Contact” to someone that has tested positive for COVID-19, which requires Quarantine.  In either case, please notify your child’s principal immediately, as you may possibly know this information prior to our school being informed.

Please also indicate if the positive COVID-19 case or verified close contact was due to a possible exposure at school.  This will allow for a much quicker mitigation and contact tracing for the safety of your child, as well as other children and staff in our school. 

South Dakota Department of Health Resources

To view the SD DOH’s weekly, aggregated COVID-19 positive case count for K-12, visit the DOH website.

For a current count of positive COVID-19 cases in Clay, Lincoln, and Union Counties and throughout South Dakota, please visit the DOH website.