Merrimack School District Employee Contracts COVID-19

MERRIMACK, NH — An SAU 26 employee has contracted COVID-19 and may have exposed it to others at the Merrimack High School graduation, according to the district's school superintendent.

Mark McLaughlin, the district superintendent, posted an alert about the case on the school's website warning the community about the case and that the employee was volunteering at the high school graduation June 13. The employee's name is being protected due to the HIPAA health privacy law but, he said, contact tracing had been established by the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services.

"Those who came within 6 feet of this individual, unmasked, for longer than 10 minutes, should be notified of this diagnosis," McLaughlin said. "By virtue of this individual’s specific duties at graduation, we can confirm that this individual did not come into contact, in the manner described above, with any graduate or any family member of a graduate at any point during the ceremony. However, this individual did have contact, in the manner described above, with four high school staff members who attended graduation as volunteers."

Anyone exposed has been contacted, he said, after speaking with the health department "extensively today" and being assured "based on their contact tracing procedures those individuals who had personal or professional contact with this individual have been communicated with appropriately, according to state procedures."

If people have not received communication from health officials or another agency, "they would otherwise be in the normal conduct of their daily life," McLaughlin said.

McLaughlin added the infection case reinforced the district's decision to require face coverings, social distancing, and other precautions for the graduation.

"As we contemplate our participation in the phases of reopening of our state, and our schools in the fall, this is a timely reminder that the virus remains active in our state and even within our community and that precautions must continue to be taken, and taken seriously, to limit contagion," he added.

More information about COVID-19 can be found at the state's website here.

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