A classroom Covid outbreak in a Marin County classroom, published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday, underscores the perils of even a brief lapse from safety measures and offers further evidence for mandatory staff vaccinations.
Half of the 24 students in a K-8 elementary school tested positive for the virus after an unnamed unvaccinated teacher removed a mask, contrary to policy, to read a story from the front of the class. That was on May 21. Two days earlier, the teacher had felt fatigue and nasal congestion but attributed the symptoms to allergies. On May 23, the test proved to be Covid.
All five students seated in the front row of desks subsequently tested positive, along with three students in the second row (one student in the row wasn’t tested) and four more students in the remaining three rows. The teacher was one of only two at the school who were not vaccinated.
After an analysis of the virus tests, the report concluded the outbreak consisted of 27 cases of the delta variant, including the teacher. Ten other students at the school also later tested positive for the coronavirus, beside the 12 in the teacher’s class. Four of them had siblings in the infected teacher’s class and were likely exposed to the virus at home, the report said.
“The outbreak’s attack rate highlights the delta variant’s increased transmissibility and potential for rapid spread, especially in unvaccinated populations such as schoolchildren too young for vaccination,” the report concluded. It also highlights the importance of vaccinating staff who work with the same age group of students, it said.
County health officials and experts with UC Berkeley, UC Davis and UC Santa Cruz wrote the report.
—John Fensterwald
A northern California high school is in quarantine after five days of in-person classes
East Nicolaus High School in northern California’s Sutter County is currently in quarantine after five days of in-person classes, according to the Sacramento Bee.
The school has resumed remote learning for the duration of its 10-day quarantine, and students will be able to return to their classrooms on Sept. 7. During that time, students are to meet with their teachers for about four total hours of daily synchronous learning.
It is unclear how many students and staff members tested positive. In a letter posted on the school’s website, Superintendent Neil Stinson wrote that he “will be personally available to provide a Covid rapid test to any ENHS student who would like to be tested.”
—Betty Márquez Rosales
Paid family leave bill approved by Senate committee
California became the first state in the nation to offer parents paid family leave in 2004 but many low-income families still can’t afford to take the essential time off. That’s because you often get only 60% of your pay, which falls well below the poverty line for many.
Helping these needy families is the idea behind Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez’s Assembly Bill 123, which would raise the amount of the weekly benefit. The bill, which would guarantee 90 percent of income, was approved Thursday by California’s Senate Appropriations Committee. It will next go to the full Senate.
This reform was among the core issues in the Master Plan for Early Learning and Care because experts agree that the early days of life are vital to child development. Paid family leave has a variety of benefits, from helping reduce maternal stress and infant hospitalization rates to increasing breastfeeding, research shows.
—Karen D’Souza
—Compiled by Ariel Carmona Jr.
