A student receiving support services at North Whidbey Middle School tested positive for COVID-19 last week, according to Island County Public Health.

A parent of the student first tested positive. The student’s positive result came back on Oct. 23.

Conor Laffey, communications officer for Oak Harbor Schools, explained that the middle school is currently closed to in-person instruction except for a small number of children who are receiving educational services at the school. The student was one of those.

Out of an abundance of caution, Public Health officials recommended that 11 students and one staff member quarantine and get tested. Under a revised definition, 15 minutes of “close contact” can accumulate over a 24-hour period of off-and-on contact within six feet of an infected person, Laffey said.

The students will be able to return to campus on Monday, Nov. 2, according to Laffey.

At the same time, cases in Island County continue to increase. A total of 46 new cases were reported in the two-week period from Oct. 9 to 23. The totals went from 329 to 375.

The number of deaths have remained at 12.

The state “dashboard” shows that the county’s rate per 100,000 of newly diagnosed cases over two weeks was 38.9, which was above the goal of less than 25.

The percent of positive tests over a week was 3.8 percent, which was more than the goal of less than 2 percent.