Update (April 2nd, 6:04 p.m.) According to Stepping Stones, the child who was exposed to the novel coronavirus from a family member tested negative. [More info]

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Wednesday morning, the City of Lubbock confirmed that there was a possible case of the novel coronavirus at a local daycare.

"The City of Lubbock is investigating a possible case of Coronavirus (COVID-19) connected to a local daycare center. Families are being notified of this development," the City posted on their Facebook page.

KFYO has since received a copy of an email sent by Stepping Stones Nursery and Preschool to parents with children enrolled at their facility.

In that email, Stepping Stones describes how a relative of one of the children enrolled at the daycare center tested positive for COVID-19, had direct contact with that child, and broke quarantine to drop the child off, all while neglecting to inform employees about their diagnosis.

"The child has not received a positive test yet, but there is reason to believe that the student’s test result will be positive. We are speaking with and asking that the teachers and the families of the children that had high-risk exposure start a 14-day voluntary quarantine."

According to the CDC, symptoms of the novel coronavirus may include:

  • Fever
  • Cough
  • Shortness of breath

These symptoms may appear 2-14 days after exposure to the virus.

Read the full email sent to parents with children at the daycare below.

Stepping Stones Daycare informs parents of COVID-19 exposure

As of Wednesday, April 1st, Lubbock County has 108 confirmed cases of COVID-19, three deaths, and 10 people who have recovered.

Text of the email from Stepping Stones

 

Stepping Stones Families,

In the interest of transparency we wanted to notify everyone that a child was brought to the facility after having direct contact with a family member who tested positive for COVID-19. In addition, the family member broke their quarantine and dropped the child off at the school without disclosing their diagnosis. The child has not received a positive test yet but there is reason to believe that the student’s test result will be positive. We are speaking with and asking that the teachers and the families of the children that had high risk exposure start a 14 day voluntary quarantine. If the student does test positive, anyone who had high risk exposure will be followed up with by the health department. If you have not been personally contacted outside of this letter, then your child is considered no to low risk at this time. We have been and will continue to be in close communication with both the health department and our local Child Care Licensing office.

We have not been instructed nor mandated to close, however out of an abundance of caution we will be closing Stepping Stones April 2nd and 3rd, 2020. We will be using these days to take additional sanitation steps.The exposure was limited to the child’s classroom however, safety is our primary concern, especially in these uncertain times. We plan on reopening April 6th 2020 for students that were at no to low risk exposures. Upon reopening we will continue to follow the abundance of precautionary steps that we have already put into place. We ask that every family watch their child closely for symptoms and immediately notify us and the health department if you notice any.

We have a great community here at Stepping Stones and it is up to each and every one of us to keep our environment as safe as possible for all of our families. Attached you will find a letter from the health department with further information. Please read this carefully. If you have further questions in regard to COVID-19 please contact the Health Department.

Kind Regards,
Stepping Stones Staff
2433 26th Street
Lubbock, TX 79411


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