Covid-19 Contact Tracing Failures & Uptick in Cases at Local Schools Leave West Augustine Parents Furious & Fearful

Parents in the West Augustine community are upset with the St. Johns County Health Department and the St. Johns County School system over failures in the contact tracing process.

One of the frustrations comes from the delay in parent notifications.

Today yet another parent in our community felt the heaviness of receiving a quarantine notification days after the supposed contact. 

This afternoon at 4 p.m. (9/1), the mother received a notification that one of her children had been exposed to someone, who had tested positive at Murray Middle School, and that the child should be quarantined until 9/1, until which the student could return to school, if the student received a negative Covid-19 test.

Today is September 1st, which is supposed to be Day 5 of the child's quarantine.

Not only should the student have been quarantined, but the parent was not even informed about which child had been exposed, as she has more than one child attending Murray Middle School.

This is a clear example of how the Covid-19 cases are running amok in our local schools, and when you combine the recent removal of safety measures such as desk shields and the lack of a mask mandate, parents are left feeling helpless when it comes to the safety of their children.

In addition, parents are frustrated that they are not allowed to keep students home, if they feel that their student has been exposed at school, unless they have been officially contacted by the school or the health department. Without this official notice, it would be considered as an unexcused absence. In light of the lack of reliable contact tracing, it leaves parents with few options to protect their children and the rest of the community.

As of September 1st, 2021 Murray Middle School currently has 32 students and 1 teacher, who has tested positive, and 130 students are out on quarantine according to the St. Johns County School District.

Check out the St. Johns County Schools Covid-19 Dashboard here to see the number of Covid-19 cases and quarantines on your child's school.

You can get free Covid testing downtown or free Covid-19 testing on the West side.

If you need a Covid-19 vaccine, it is easy, free and quick to get at CVS. Learn more about how to get your COVID vaccination at CVS here.

You can find more Covid-19 news in St. Johns County here.

If you are a West Augustine family, who has had experiences with the flaws in the contract tracing process, please contact us at westaugustinenewsconnection@gmail.com.