WALLOWA — Wallowa High School closed for the next two weeks, effective Thursday, April 29, after several COVID-19 cases were confirmed at the school, Superintendent Tammy Jones said in a post to the district’s Facebook page.

According to the post, six individuals have tested positive for COVID-19 — two on Wednesday, April 28, and four other positive tests earlier in the week. In a social media post on Tuesday, April 27, that first outlined the details of the outbreak, the district said it did not plan to close.

That plan changed on April 29.

“We are working closely with our local and state health authority to respond to this news and protect the health of our community,” Jones wrote in the April 29 post. “We are rapidly putting the contact tracing logs together and providing them to local health officials for contact tracing. Given the timing and the numbers of contacts that local health officials will needing to contact, we are immediately closing our high school.”

Students in grades six through 12 were moved to distance learning starting April 29 and will remain there through May 11. A local health official will contact parents who have a student who is required to quarantine, Jones said in the post.

Students in kindergarten through fifth grade will remain on campus, Jones said.

The Facebook post on April 27 linked the outbreak to a community prom, which the post said was not a school-sponsored activity.

“Many Wallowa County students attended this event, along with community chaperones,” the post stated. “(April 27) we learned that a number of individuals attending the prom have tested positive for COVID-19.”

Jones on April 29 confirmed the six reported cases are students.

She added that any athletes will be able to compete during the move to distance learning as long as they are not in quarantine.