130 Students, 4 Staff Members at Mission Vista High Placed in Quarantine After Student Tests Positive for COVID-19

Some students and staff members at Mission Vista High School were placed into a 14-day quarantine after a student tested positive for COVID-19, Vista Unified School District said Thursday.

The Vice President of the Vista Teacher's Association tells NBC 7, the student attended classes on Tuesday was absent Wednesday, and was given a positive COVID-19 diagnosis Wednesday night.

It's not clear why the student chose to be tested, whether the stuent was experiencing symptoms or came in contact with an infected person.

The district notified all of the students and staff members who may have come in contact with the person on campus. There were approximately 130 students in the four classes that the student attended on Tuesday, VUSD said. Four teachers were also placed in quarantine, Vista Teacher's Association told NBC 7.

"The student did not come into close contact with every student; however, since this is our first incident, we are proceeding with an abundance of caution," the district said in a release.

The classes the students attended will now turn into a distance learning model the school used during September using Canvas and Zoom, VUSD said.

USD made the decision to implement a 14-day quarantine in accordance with the COVID-19 Decision Tree, VUSD said. The decision tree keeps track of any student or staff member in any of the following three categories:

Students or staff members experiencing symptoms
Students or staff members who have had close contact with a person confirmed to have COVID-19 Students or
Staff members who are COVID-19 positive

"We have had student and staff activity in all three categories, which means that our response system is working. For the first two categories, this impact is almost always on one student or staff member at a time. Students or staff may have a fever, or cough, or may have come into close contact with a COVID positive person outside the school environment. The third category almost always involves a group of students and teachers," VUSD said in a release.

VUSD opened campus for in-class instruction on October 20.

According to the district's plan posted on its website, there is enhanced sanitation, additional handwashing stations, specific entrances and exits, and students and staff are required to wear masks.