Chaperone on school trip later tested positive for coronavirus

A chaperone on the Mexia High School band’s trip to Disney World in Orlando, Fla., has tested positive for the coronavirus.

A post on the Mexia ISD website which was put online late Sunday afternoon stated, “On the afternoon of Sunday, March 22, 2020, District Admin was notified that a sponsor on the MHS band trip tested positive for COVID-19. The sponsor does not live locally and returned to his home outside Limestone County immediately after the trip.”

Mexia ISD Superintendent Dr. Lyle DuBus said the person who tested positive was a relative of one of the students on the trip.

Mitzi Eves, who went on the trip along with her two children who are MISD students, said late Monday morning that as far as she knew, no students or chaperones had reported any symptoms of COVID-19.

“When he chaperone who organized the trip called around to everybody to tell them what was going on, not a single person told them they had any symptoms, including chaperones and students,” Eves said. “Not a single one of them reported they felt bad or had any kind of weird symptoms or anything.”

The contingent of students and chaperones, which numbered more than 40, left for Disney World on March 7, the Saturday before spring break began. They returned Thursday, March 12.

“We got back on that Thursday and we all went our separate ways,” Eves said. “My understanding is, as soon as we got back he left and went back home.”

If that was the case, Monday would have been 11 days since the trip ended and anyone might have had contact with the individual who tested positive.

The incubation period for the coronavirus, which means the amount of time between when one is exposed to it and when one begins to show symptoms, is 2-14 days. According to the website www.healthline.com, the average incubation period seems to be about five days, and 97 percent of people who contract it show symptoms within 11.5 days.

As for the chaperone who tested positive, Eves said her understanding is that the person is “back to normal.”

“After they got back home they didn’t feel well,” Eves said. “So, they went to the doctor and the doctor thought they had pneumonia and treated them for pneumonia. From what I understand, in the process they did the coronavirus test on them. It takes several days to come back. In the mean time, they were still taking medication for pneumonia. Then the test came back. By that time, they were already feeling well. They never went to the hospital, never had to have severe treatment done.”

Eves said DuBus was informed of the positive test result.

“When we found out, of course Dr. DuBus had to be notified,” she said. “It had to be done. It wasn’t something that could be a secret. But we’re all just checking with each other and checking with the students to make sure everybody’s okay.”

DuBus, in turn, got in touch with regional and state agencies to seek guidance.

The post on the MISD website says, “In abundance of caution the District has been in contact with with Texas Department of State Health, Region 7, which has advised that anyone who was on the trip showing symptoms of COVID-19 to call their doctor.”

The high end of the incubation period is 14 days, which will be Thursday.

“Come 14 days and nobody’s had any symptoms, it’s safe to assume nobody got anything on our trip,” Eves said.