At least five local students have tested positive for coronavirus and more are being tested after suspected exposures.
The first was a player on Luverne’s 17U baseball team who tested positive after traveling and playing with his teammates during the July 9 game in Worthington.
More recently two students tested positive after spending time in the new weight room at Luverne High School, a high school runner is positive after participating in a cross country camp and a lifeguard at the city indoor pool is also positive.
The weight room is now closed, and those who were known to have been exposed are self-isolating.
Similarly, pool manager Samantha Honermann said employees who were exposed to the positive lifeguard are quarantining, and no other staff or patrons have been affected.
Luverne High School Principal Ryan Johnson said he’s been grateful for the slow rise of cases locally, but that he’s not surprised to see students coming down with the virus.
“It’s bound to happen,” he said Monday. “Sports teams are getting together and kids are getting together socially and getting their routines back to normal. … It doesn’t surprise me or make me anxious.”
He said the positive cases didn’t occur because of negligent or reckless behavior. “We were all working within the CDC guidelines,” Johnson said. “You have a virus making the rounds. We’re trying to take necessary precautions.”
He said he recognizes some families, especially those with compromised immune systems, are fearful, and he’s encouraging people to be sensitive to varying thresholds of fear for the virus.
“It’s here,” Johnson said. “We’re going to have more cases. We all just have different approaches to dealing with it.”
School and state officials are still considering the best way to resume learning this fall, and Johnson said he’s thinking about the effects of not having students in school.
“The American Association of Pediatricians points out that it’s more of a risk to students’ health and mental well-being not to have them in school,” Johnson said. “There’s going to be a lot of variability for how the different grades handle it within the district.”
While the three positive cases among local teens have been high profile on social media and among local families, more students have since tested positive, and Rock County’s case numbers continue to rise.
As of 11 a.m. Tuesday, Rock County had recorded 44 positive cases since tracking began in March. That’s up from the 35 tallied as of July 15) (Pipestone is at 122 and Nobles is 1,711).
Rock County Emergency Management Director Kyle Oldre said he’s troubled by the rising numbers and even more so by local response.
“I’ve heard some parents say that if we shut down Community Ed sports, they’ll still keep their kids on traveling teams,” Oldre said.
“I get it that it’s frustrating for the parents and the kids, but this is just no good. We need to ask ourselves as we go longer in this pandemic, ‘Are you taking the same precautions as you did in March, or are you getting more lax?’ This hasn’t gone away.”
He said there’s also an element among the public that stay-at-home orders accomplished what they needed to in slowing down a potential surge in cases.
“We did that, but we just want to make sure things don’t spike too fast,” Oldre said. “I’ve been hearing about big gatherings of people and people later testing positive. You can’t roll the dice and bring big groups together without consequences.”
For summer sports teams, the consequences are getting real.
Coach Mike Wenninger canceled their three 17U games after the positive player exposed the team during the July 9 game. The players — roughly 20 of them — were told to quarantine for 14 days.
This, in turn, affected those families and the businesses that employ the quarantined players.
“It’s here,” he said about his personal reaction to the virus among students. “I think it gives us a precursor of what school could be like this fall.”
Generally speaking, he said kids are taking it in stride and his message to the team is the same as the message from the CDC. “Stay six feet apart, limit time in groups to 15 minutes or less, and basically wear a mask when you’re indoors around others,” Wenninger said.
Assuming no one shows symptoms or tests positive, the 17U team members will play their next game July 27.