A Christian school from Colorado has reportedly agreed to follow COVID-19 health protocols after being threatened with closure.
The Christian Post highlighted that Loveland-based Resurrection Christian School has already agreed to implement the health measures set fort by the Larimer County officials to avoid closure from the spread of COVID-19 among its personnel and students.
The Larimer County Department of Public Health ordered Resurrection Christian School last September 9 to "implement mitigation strategies to prevent spread of COVID-19 and to comply with law regarding inspection of schools and investigation control of outbreaks of communicable disease."
Specifically, the school was instructed to implement masking mandates "regardless of vaccination status, for a period of no less than 14 days" for all students, faculty, staff, and visitors. The school was also asked to practice social distancing, conduct contract tracing, and cohort students, as well as, compile vaccination status with seating charts.
The Larimer County Department of Public Health released the order following 36 confirmed cases of COVID-19 infections in the school and 12 possible cases of infection since August 17.
In an interview with The Christian Post, Larimer County Department of Public Health Spokesperson Kori Wilford confirmed that the school is working with them for the implementation of the COVID-19 protocols.
"RCS is working with our team to implement practices and protocols designed to keep as many students and staff learning and working safely, in person, while the outbreak resolves," Wilford disclosed.
"The best practices required of RCS are proven strategies to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and stop the current climb in cases associated with the outbreak," Wilford added, "The hope is that by implementing these measures quickly, the risk to students, staff, and visitors to the school will be reduced and in person learning can continue."
Wilford also revealed that the order was set for implementation last Monday but the school requested for an extension, which they granted since the school informed "they could not meet that."
Previously, the Larimer County Department of Public Health released a statement calling the attention of the school for refusing to implement COVID-19 protocols for the safety of the students and its personnel.
"RCS is refusing to work with and communicate with public health staff. They are not implementing practices and protocols designed to keep as many students and staff learning and working safely, in-person, while the outbreak resolves," the statement said.
The order sent by the department to the school actually highlighted several instances that the notifications sent them via email was ignored. The notices was meant to call the school's attention on their "pre-outbreak and outbreak status" from August 24-September 2 that mostly affected grade 6 students.
Viewing the various social media accounts of Resurrection Christian School, one would see that the health protocols were not being implemented from photos posted until September 11 even if cases were already on the rise by mid-August. There is also no information in their website on the need of the school body to comply with the health protocols.
The school body was actually informed by Resurrection Christian School Superintendent Dr. Jerry Eschleman on the Health Department's order via his personal YouTube Channel on September 4. In the said video, Eschleman clarified to the school body the contents of the order and provided statistics on the cases of COVID-19 infection in the school.
