A Wake childcare center and a private school each report more than 20 COVID cases
A Wake County childcare center is listing 29 COVID-19 cases and Cardinal Gibbons High School is listing 23 cases in the latest report from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.
Precious Lambs Early Learning Center in Raleigh reported 20 COVID cases among students and nine among staff on Friday’s DHHS report of ongoing clusters in childcare centers and school settings.
Cardinal Gibbons High in Raleigh reported 19 COVID cases among students and four cases among staff in the report.
Both totals are higher than the seven cases at Precious Lambs and the five cases at Cardinal Gibbons that were listed on the prior state cluster report on Tuesday.
DHHS defines a “cluster” as five or more linked cases in the same facility within 14 days.
Precious Lambs will reopen Monday after being closed for two weeks on the advice of health officials, Bridget Mason-Gray, the center’s assistant director, said in an interview Friday. She said the school has received a deep cleaning in preparation for the return of children.
But Mason-Gray said the cause of the outbreak, which led her to contract COVID, has not been determined.
“We just don’t know until you see the cases and we have to close,” Mason-Gray said. “We’ve been told a lot of the children aren’t showing symptoms even though they tested positive.”
Precious Lambs is tied with Cary Christian School as having the most cases of any school or childcare center on the state report.
COVID cases at Cardinal Gibbons
It’s unclear when the cases occurred at Cardinal Gibbons, which suspended in-person learning for two weeks in late January and early February after several students tested positive. Cardinal Gibbons is the high school for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Raleigh. It’s one of the largest private schools in the state.
An email and voicemail message left Friday with a Diocese spokesman was not immediately returned.
Other Wake County childcare centers and schools on the state report showed far more cases Friday than Tuesday.
Our Lady of Lourdes, a Raleigh school in the Diocese, had 17 cases in Friday’s report: 16 students and one employee. That’s up from six cases total on Tuesday’s report.
ABC Land, a childcare center in Wendell, listed 15 cases Friday: 11 students and four staff. That’s up from five cases in the prior report.
This story was originally published March 26, 2021 at 4:59 PM.
