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Covid-19: Cases Linked To High School Parties In Fairfield County

The spike in COVID-19 cases in Town of Fairfield high schools has been linked to several parties and large gatherings that have been attended by students, town officials said.

Mass gatherings of students have been tied to the recent spike in cases in Fairfield County high schools.

Mass gatherings of students have been tied to the recent spike in cases in Fairfield County high schools.

Photo Credit: Salvatore Trifilio

During a briefing this week, Fairfield First Selectwoman Brenda Kupchick said that there are six positive COVID-19 cases - five at Fairfield Ludlowe High School and one at Fairfield Prep - that may force upwards of 100 people to quarantine because they may have come into contact with an infected student.

Those impacted have been contacted by school or health officials and are currently in isolation.

While conducting their contact tracing, officials said there were no less than six recent gatherings over the weekend that could have led to the new COVID-19 cases. Four of those events were attended by at least one person who contracted the virus.

Officials said that at these gatherings, which were held at area homes, not public spaces, the students were failing to wear a mask or socially distance.

Kupchick said that the students and the mass gatherings “could really set our town back in a significant way” or “spiral out of control” while calling on parents to educate and remind their children that they’re still in the middle of a pandemic.

"There is a civic responsibility that is required not just for us as adults, but also for those of you, as parents, for your children," she said. "I feel like deja vu. We were doing this in March, talking about our civic responsibility as a community to make sure that to keep our numbers down so we could have our students go back to school, our businesses could reopen.”

Fire Chief Denis McCarthy was among the other officials to call on students to follow COVID-19 mandates and for parents to police their children.

"We cannot enforce our way through it, we cannot find our way through it," he said. "This really requires all of us to take our civic responsibility seriously.”

In Fairfield, there have been a total of 739 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 60 probable cases. In Fairfield County, there have been 19,147 confirmed cases, resulting in 1,107 virus-related deaths.

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