After a thorough cleaning, students and faculty at Porter’s Chapel Academy will return to school on Monday.

The school and the Porter’s Chapel Academy daycare closed last Wednesday after a student and family tested positive for COVID-19.

“We used an electrostatic sprayer to disinfect our whole facility and wiped down all the high traffic areas. We just did a deep cleaning of our school,” Porter’s Chapel Head of School Chris Williams said.

Williams said the daycare will remain closed until Nov. 24 because of COVID-19 protocols from the state.

“A staff member at our daycare tested positive for COVID and because of that the Mississippi State Health Department mandated a quarantine for our daycare,” Williams said.

A PCA student, who is related to the daycare staff member, also tested positive for COVID, Williams said. A a person who had been in close contact with the student tested positive as well.

While they are exhibiting symptoms, Williams said, no one has been hospitalized and all are expected to make a full recovery.

In addition to those testing positive, Williams said, there are others who will remain quarantined for a 14-day period through contact tracing.

“We are taking this very seriously at PCA and we do believe through contact tracing we have identified all who were exposed to the positive cases and we do feel it is safe for our students and staff to return on Monday,” he said.

Up until last week, PCA had been fortunate to not have anyone test positive for the virus since the school year began in August.

“This is just a bump in the road. We have been very fortunate up until this point and we know that the Lord had a hand in that and just because we have had one case of COVID does not mean he is still not watching over us,” Williams said.

He added that the school has remained in prayer for those affected and are trusting God to continue to protect the students, faculty, and staff.

“We will trust in the Lord as we move forward,” he said.