Details scarce as Manatee school district confirms another case of COVID-19

“A person associated with” the School District of Manatee County has tested positive for COVID-19, a respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus, a spokesman said.

The Department of Health informed district officials of the positive confirmation last week, but it provided limited information, district spokesman Mike Barber said, responding to an inquiry from the Bradenton Herald on Monday.

“I was told the person had some kind of contact that occurred during spring break, they did not return to any of our sites once spring break was over, and then we got confirmation there was a positive case last week,” he said.

Barber said he spoke with two district officials who had direct knowledge of the case, and neither was informed about which school or district facility the person was associated with. Information was scarce, he said, citing the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

“There is some information we have that we can’t say because of HIPAA, but there’s also information we don’t know because of HIPAA,” Barber said.

The law protects certain health information from public disclosure. However, there is “de-identified” health information that is shareable, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

“De-identified health information neither identifies nor provides a reasonable basis to identify an individual,” the agency said on its website.

The first known case of COVID-19 in the district was at Lakewood Ranch High School, according to an email sent to school employees and families in late March.

It seems the person was on campus before spring break, and employees were directed to work from home, just before online classes were scheduled to begin. The same was true for a case at Sugg Middle School.

Shortly after the first case was announced, the district sent another message to employees and families of Sugg Middle last month. It said “a person associated with the school has been confirmed as a positive case,” and the district urged all staff and students to call the health department if they experienced COVID-19 symptoms.

In the most recent case, it was unclear what school or district facility the person was associated with, or when the person was last in contact with a district building.

There were 144 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Manatee County as of Monday morning.

This story was originally published April 6, 2020 at 3:58 PM.