ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Orange County has confirmed the first case of a student who was in a classroom testing positive for COVID-19, health leaders reported Thursday.

The 9-year-old student who tested positive was in class Monday for the first day of school with eight other children and a teacher, according to Dr. Raul Pino, state health department officer for Orange County.

The discovery came at the Winter Garden campus of the private Circle Christian school.

The child started having symptoms Tuesday.

Pino said when the health department was notified, everyone in that classroom was ordered to self-quarantine. Circle Christian said it asked the other eight students and the teacher to stay home for two weeks and moved everyone from the Winter Garden campus to online learning until August 24. 

“This was the first case, for us it was a test run, of how our systems have been working, and it was the right thing to quarantine,” Pino said. 

According to Orange County’s school reopening plan, all students and staff must wear a mask because of Orange County’s ongoing mask mandate. Pino said that may have helped contain any possible spread. 

“They were masked at all times in the classroom so we consider that exposure was minimum to the students or the teachers,” Pino said.

Unlike public school districts, though, the school’s reopening policy reads that while social distancing is encouraged, it “may not be possible on campus.”

Circle Christian is a parent-driven private school, Students spend most of their time at home school and part of the week at one of its campuses, which are located at various churches throughout Orange County.

‘While we were saddened to hear this news, we have been in contact with the student's family and are pleased to report the student is doing well,” Circle Christian administrator and co-founder Jim Werner said. “We will continue to be in touch with the family to monitor the student’s progress.

"Our objective is to walk wisely and faithfully through this season while responding decisively to the changing situation related to the coronavirus." 

Pino said health department officials believe this case came from outside the classroom.

“We determined that this is a community-acquired case,” Pino said. “They started on Monday, the child developed symptoms on Tuesday.”

Circle Christian School released a statement Thursday night about its response to the case:

While we were saddened to hear this news, we have been in contact with the student's family and are pleased to report the student is doing well. We will continue to be in touch with the family to monitor the student’s progress.

"Our objective is to walk wisely and faithfully through this season while responding decisively to the changing situation related to the Coronavirus," said Jim Werner, Circle Co-Founder and administrator.

School officials said as a response, they have introduced new return-to-school guidelines that include:

• Enhanced Cleaning: Our schools are cleaned each morning, throughout the day and each evening.
• Face Coverings: All teachers and students are required to wear a face covering while on one of our campus locations.
• Temperature checks: All staff and students are required to have a temperature check prior to entering the campus.
• Social Distancing: When possible, we ask students and teachers to maintain proper distancing.
• Case Protocols: In an instance where someone tests positive for COVID-19, we ask the people who were in contact with that individual to quarantine and not return to a school facility for 14 days. 
• Communication: We increased our communication with our students, families and faculty to keep them current on what we are doing in response to any cases when they occur.

In this instance, we have asked the 8 students and 1 faculty member from the impacted class to quarantine for the next two weeks. In addition, all students who have attended the Winter Garden facility have moved to online-only instruction until August 24.

Spectrum News Reporter Rebecca Turco contributed to this report.