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Fingers crossed, Natchez-Adams School District students seem to be staving off the COVID-19 virus in good order.

“I’m afraid even to talk about it for fear we will have an outbreak, but so far, we are doing well,” said Fred Butcher, superintendent of the Natchez-Adams County School District.

Tony Fields, public relations coordinator for the school district, said the district has only had one confirmed case of COVID-19 and that was an elementary school student.

“We have had a few staff cases, but those were mainly when school was not meeting in person,” Fields said.

About a month ago, a high school basketball player was possibly exposed to COVID-19 in the community and the basketball team, who had been exposed to that player, was made to quarantine.

“We have to take that precaution and quarantine everyone in order to prevent any spread,” Fields said.

Fields lauded the work of the district’s staff and faculty in going the extra mile to keep schools safe for students.

“I really want the public to know what a great job our custodians and maintenance staff are doing in keeping our buildings sanitized. Teachers, too, are going above and beyond in keeping their classrooms clean and sanitized and making certain students are keeping their distance from one another,” Fields said. “We are doing everything humanly possible to provide clean and safe environments for our students.”

That includes everyone wearing masks.

“Our students and faculty and staff wear masks all day. The only time they are permitted to let the masks down is when they have to eat,” he said.

Unlike private schools, public schools are required to report any cases of COVID-19 among students, faculty and staff to the Mississippi Department of Public Health.

“We report every Monday,” Butcher said. “And anyone interested can go to our website and see our COVID dashboard, which reports COVID cases among students and staff.”

That information is broken down by school and is reported under the COVID reporting dashboard on the school district’s home page or follow this link: https://www.natchezadamsschooldistrict.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=1707475&type=d&pREC_ID=2083569