Salem Students, Staff Quarantine After Positive Coronavirus Test

SALEM, MA — Five students and five to seven staff members at Salem Public Schools' LEAP Saltonstall Summer program have been asked to quarantine after another staff member tested positive for the coronavirus.

The program has been closed for the week, Salem Public Schools said in a statement. The staff member who tested positive for COVID-19 had not been at the program since Aug. 11 and was not an employee of Salem Public Schools but a staff member "working at the LEAP Saltonstall Summer program."

The people asked to quarantine had "worked closely with this staff member," the school system said. The decision to close the program for its last week of the summer was made "because we are short-staffed due to some of the staff needing to quarantine."

Last week the Salem YMA reported that a staff member and several children at its daycare program had contracted the virus.

Salem joined the state's "Stop the Spread" testing program Monday after the state said it was a high-risk community for spreading COVID-19. The designation by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health forced Salem officials to scrap a plan to begin the school year with some in-person learning.

Dave Copeland covers Salem and other North Shore communities for Patch. He can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).