COVID-19

Latest COVID-19 case in Riverhead School District hits Phillips Avenue School

The surge in COVID-19 cases across the region continues to impact the Riverhead Central School District.

For the fourth time in the past six days, interim superintendent Christine Tona announced a positive case in the district. The latest announcement on Thursday was of a student at Phillips Avenue Elementary School testing positive.

As has been the case in prior instances, she said the student cannot return to school until the district receives clearance from the Suffolk County Department of Health.

“The district will notify those who are identified as being in close contact and issue quarantine orders if applicable,” Ms. Tona wrote.

The school building will remain open as of now. A prior announcement about positive cases at Roanoke Avenue Elementary School resulted in a full switch to remote learning until after Thanksgiving.

On Wednesday, Ms. Tona announced a non-instructional staff member at Pulaski Street School tested positive for COVID-19.

Ms. Tona addressed some of the other recent cases at Tuesday’s school board meeting.

Shoreham-Wading River has reported four students tested positive for COVID-19 between Nov. 5-11, according to data published on the School Covid Report Card. There was also one high school teacher who tested positive over that time period. Eleven students have tested positive since the start of the school year.

Cases across the county continue to climb and the health department on Thursday reported 321 new cases for the prior 24 hours. There have now been 1,013 new cases in the last three days. By comparison, there were 1,623 cases in all of September.

There were 29 fatalities linked to COVID-19 in New York on Wednesday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said.