HAINES — Two students at Haines Elementary School recently tested positive for COVID-19.

The two were among a group of students who showed symptoms of possible illness during a routine daily screening before they entered the school on Thursday, Oct. 22, Baker School District Superintendent Mark Witty said Monday morning.

Each day staff members take students’ temperatures, make a visual check of their well-being and ask questions about their health.

“We identified kids with high temperatures, isolated them and sent them home,” Witty said.

He would not say how many students were sent home.

Two of those students tested positive.

Witty did not know how many of the students who were sent home were tested for COVID-19.

Haines School has 114 students in kindergarten through sixth grade, along with 12 preschoolers.

Witty said there are no plans at this point to close Haines Elementary. District administrators and Baker County Health Department officials would make the decision together, he said.

“We would do that if the situation called for it,” he said.

In a press release Sunday, Witty said the district is working closely with the Baker County Health Department to notify families and staff.

Students who are tested and are not infected with the virus can return to school after their fever subsides for 24 hours without medication, he said.

The health department has contacted students and staff who were in close proximity with the students who tested positive. Close proximity is defined as being within 6 feet of the person who has tested positive for a total of 15 minutes over a 24-hour period.

Those who were required to quarantine were notified on Sunday afternoon, Witty said. District staff deep cleaned spaces in all affected classrooms and buses Sunday, Witty said.

As of Monday, the two positive tests at Haines were the only ones from the school district, which resumed in-person classes for students from preschool through sixth grade on Oct. 14.

A limited number of students who were on a bus with the two Haines students who tested positive also have been quarantined, Witty said.

Students who are quarantined will be able to continue their studies at home through the school district’s comprehensive distance learning system.