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 Wednesday night, and four other positive tests earlier in the week. In a post Tuesday evening that first outlined the details of the outbreak, the district said it did not plan to close. That plan changed Thursday morning.

“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 Thursday morning 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 Thursday 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 Tuesday evening 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. “(Tuesday) afternoon we learned that a number of individuals attending the prom have tested positive for COVID-19.”

Jones on Thursday confirmed to the Wallowa County Chieftain that 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.

Oregon Health Authority has reported 12 new COVID-19 cases in Wallowa County the last two days, including four in its Friday, which brings the county total to 172.

Union County from Sunday through Wednesday added three new cases, according to the OHA, then added five on Thursday but none on Friday. The county’s total number of cases as of Friday morning was 1,432, including 23 fatalities.