New Kensington-Arnold employee hospitalized with coronavirus

A Valley Junior-Senior High School employee hospitalized with covid-19 may have had contact with students and staff for up to four days, according to a notice issued Monday evening by New Kensington-Arnold School District.

The district first announced Sunday that the employee had tested positive. The employee was not identified.

The employee was among about 102 people who traveled by bus to and from New York City on a band booster field trip from March 5-8. The district said there is no proof that is where the employee contracted the virus.

The district said the employee returned to work at the junior-senior high school March 10 and worked through the week. He or she began to exhibit symptoms March 13 and may have come in contact with students or staff.

On Monday, the district said the employee’s household has been quarantined.

The district’s notice said one junior-senior high school student who had not gone on the trip exhibited symptoms and was self-quarantined and being tested.

Superintendent John Pallone said after the notice was issued that the student’s parent told him in an email that there was no testing because the student’s doctor “does not feel the symptoms warrant a test.”

There are two confirmed cases related to district staff, Pallone said. The other is an employee’s spouse; the spouse had also gone on the band trip.

The district is providing coronavirus-related updates on its website twice daily, at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m.