PORT HENRY — A student in the Moriah Central School District has tested positive for COVID-19.

District Superintendent William Larrow was notified of this on Saturday by Linda Beers, director of public health at the Essex County Health Department. The school is assisting the department with case investigation and contact tracing.

“The student in question was present for in-person learning on Monday, Oct. 19, prior to becoming symptomatic. Upon developing symptoms, they remained home Tuesday and sought medical care and a COVID test,” said Larrow in a statement from the health department.

“We expect the risk of exposure to be low, but the health and safety of our school community is my top priority,” said Larrow. “We will close the school buildings Monday to perform deep cleaning and assess whether moving to one of our alternate learning plans is appropriate.”

The community will be notified of further decisions. Contact tracing is currently underway.

“The positive case is isolating at home and being monitored by our health department staff,” said Beers.

Since the fall semester began Sept. 8, the North Country region as a whole has had 12 students and six teachers and staff test positive on-site at school, plus another 20 students and three faculty and staff test positive off-site, according to New York state’s COVID-19 Report Card Sunday.

As of Friday, the last day reported, Essex County had 10 active cases of COVID-19, according to the health department, which does not give statistical updates on weekends. Of those 10, six were in the town of Moriah, two in Crown Point — which has also had a positive test in its school — and one each in North Elba and Keene.

Neighboring Franklin County reported seven active COVID-19 cases as of Sunday morning. Franklin County does not break down the active cases by town.

Since the pandemic began, Franklin County has had 69 test-positive cases, 104 suspected positives (diagnosed by doctors when testing was not available), 167 recoveries and, according to the county, no deaths, although the state lists one death the county disputes.

Since the pandemic began, Essex County has had 133 test-positive cases, 16 suspected positives, 139 recoveries and 15 deaths, due to an outbreak at the Essex Center nursing home in Elizabethtown.