Student tests positive for COVID-19 at Orange County's first reopened public high school

LOS ALAMITOS, Calif. - A student at a recently reopened public high school in Orange County has tested positive for the coronavirus.

Los Alamitos High School officials informed parents that a student has tested positive for COVID-19 just one week after the school reopened its doors for in-person learning.

Los Alamitos High School Interim Principal Gregg Stone sent a letter to parents on Tuesday, Oct. 6, letting them know about the positive case.

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Stone said that parents of children who might have been in close contact with the infected student were individually contacted.

"I am writing to inform you that we have recently received information about a student with a confirmed case of COVID19. If you have not been notified that your child had close contact (less than 6ft. for 15 minutes or more) with this student, no action is required," the letter reads.

Stone went on to say that all exposed classrooms would be thoroughly cleaned per the California Department of Public Health and the Orange County Health Care Agency guidelines for schools.

The school has just under 3,000 students who have returned to campus for in-person instruction, according to the Los Alamitos Unified School District's COVID-19 dashboard. It is the only high school in the district that has reopened its doors since the pandemic.

The positive case highlights the concern that children under the age of 18 can be infected with the deadly virus.

Orange County is seeking to move to the less restrictive "orange tier" under the state's new color-coded coronavirus reopening system. The county on Thursday reported 141 new COVID-19 cases, raising the overall total to 55,183. As of Friday morning, the county's COVID-19 death toll stook at 1,292.

The county's case positivity rate, which is reported each Tuesday, inched up from 3.1% last week to 3.2% this week, and the daily case rate per 100,000 people rose from 4.4 to 5.2, which is higher than the cutoff of 3.9 to qualify for a move from the red to the orange tier.