4 teachers at Lexington County child care center test positive for COVID-19

A Lexington County child care center is closing its doors after multiple teachers tested positive for the coronavirus.

Learn 2 Grow, a daycare with a two-year wait list, will be closed until at least Aug. 15, owner Michele Pfentner told The State on Friday. Earlier this week, four of the Gilbert, S.C., facility’s 10 teachers were diagnosed with COVID-19, she said.

Pfentner believes the first confirmed COVID-19 case entered the child care center when a teacher contracted the virus from a family member and showed up to work.

On Aug. 5, the state Department of Health and Environmental Control sent a letter to the teacher’s possible contacts to alert them of the positive case. By then, other teachers had become infected.

Although DHEC recommended Learn 2 Grow close classrooms where the infected teachers might have been and alert parents, Pfentner decided to be “proactive” and close the whole child care facility for two weeks.

Pfentner said she has not been made aware of any COVID-19 cases among the 62 children she cares for at the center. Their ages range from six weeks to 12 years old, and about 20 are school-aged, she said.

For a small business that was already struggling to cope with the pandemic, the outbreak is devastating.

Early in the pandemic, Learn 2 Grow stayed open until it couldn’t, because so many children were staying home with parents instead of going to day care. By late March, there weren’t even a dozen students at the center, so Pfentner closed down her shop until May 18.

Once reopened, she followed instructions from DHEC “to the letter,” disinfecting often, barring parents from going inside, taking the temperatures of students and staff every morning, and sending people home at the first sign of illness. She enacted a policy that required anyone with sick family members — or even family members waiting for test results — to stay away.

“We’re literally doing everything and we can’t stop it,” said Pfentner, who considers herself a “neat freak and a germophobe.”

She said she worries about what the cases could mean for her center in a few weeks, once schools reopen. Many area schools plan to have “hybrid” schedules, in which some school days are held in-person and others are for virtual learning. The point is to reduce the number of children and staff in school buildings at any given time and allow for physical distancing.

Lexington County has been struggling to contain the virus for months. As of Aug. 6, there were 4,793 confirmed cases in the county, but another 29,443 possible, according to DHEC estimates.

Pfentner said she plans to care for students on their virtual learning days, and has hired a teacher to help students with schoolwork. She has serious concerns about how the virus could spread once students are intermingling at school, on buses, and out in the community, but she can’t afford to shut down in the fall. Learn 2 Grow’s expenses are greater than its income right now, and working parents rely on the center for support.

“They’re counting on me, I can’t leave them hanging,” she said.

The State reached out to DHEC for additional information.

This story was originally published August 7, 2020 at 4:57 PM.