We knew it was inevitable : Pa child care centers wrestle with COVID surge | Coronavirus phillytrib.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from phillytrib.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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When Damaris Alvarado reopened her two South Philadelphia child care centers in May, she hustled to make them safe: instituting physical distancing and cleaning guidelines, staggering pickups and drop-offs to avoid bunching parents together, and spending tens of thousands of dollars on air purifying units.
For a while, the preventative measures seemed to work. The centers, which together enrolled 235 kids, had zero documented COVID-19 cases from May through October.
“Everything was going well,” Alvarado said, “prior to the second wave.”
On Nov. 17, Alvarado got the news she had been dreading: One of her staff members had tested positive for COVID. She said she immediately closed down that classroom and contacted families.