2 Detroit summer school students test positive for COVID-19

DETROIT (FOX 2) - Two Detroit summer school students have tested positive for COVID-19. 

The Detroit Public School Community School District has been ordered to test 630 students to keep classes in session. Less than half have been given the test so far.

Critics say this confirms their fears about summer school being open. The city's health department said it took immediate action after learning of the two students tested positive.

The city teamed up with DPSCD to test more than 600 students in the summer school program receiving face to face lessons from instructors. About 274 students received rapid COVID-19 testing today leading to the positive tests.

Those two children will now continue their summer school online. Their parents and anyone else who came into close contact with them will be ordered to self-quarantine for two weeks and take note if they develop any symptoms.

Detroit Chief Public Health Director Denise Fair spoke to FOX 2 about the city's response.

"The health department immediately went into action and we began our contact tracing protocol," she said. "We are contacting the families, we are making sure they are quarantined and we did our due diligence.

"We started testing today and we are going to continue testing for the next couple of days. We are going to test students via nasal swab. We are partnering with Henry Ford Health System and we are going to test everyone who needs to be tested, including the staff if they have an interest in testing."

On Tuesday a federal judge ruled that DPSCD summer school could continue if all those attending were tested for COVID-19. The school district says all students who received face to face instruction must be tested in order to be allowed to come back to class on Monday. 

The city will provide testing for those students starting Friday at summer school locations throughout the city. Students can also be tested at the health department at 100 Mack Avenue. They can also be tested Saturday and Sunday at the health department. 

DPSCD Superintendant Nikolai Vitti says the district is committed to transparency and is working with the health department as they complete summer school and prepare to reopen in the fall. The district is also cleaning and disinfecting at the school.

Protesters have routinely blocked DPSCD school buses every morning arguing that it is not safe yet for in-person classes to resume for children, the faculty or parents and loved ones at their homes, who may get exposed by the kids carrying the virus.

The activist group Detroit Will Breathe have attended the protests and group leader Tristan Taylor spoke to FOX 2 about the positive tests.

He said the positive test results highlights how much work has to be done to get a handle on COVID-19.

"I think it confirms our fears of summer school being open and how much work we need to do to get a handle on COVID-19," he said in a text message. "It’s criminal that young black bodies were unnecessarily in harm's way."