SAN MATEO COUNTY, Calif. (KRON) – The San Mateo-Foster City School District had sent a letter to parents on Monday saying there had been 115 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in schools since the return to school after winter vacation.
It’s such a large number that the district initially said in the letter that it could not continue with contact tracing, instead asking students, staff and families to act as if they had been exposed. to the virus.
However, later Tuesday morning, school superintendent Diego Ochoa told KRON4 that the district would resume the daily search for contracts, apparently reversing course.
In a partial statement, the school district explained:
“Given the high prevalence of Omicron virus in the community, we have announced our intention to suspend positive case letters to classrooms and school communities. Our intention was to focus available resources on helping families get tested.
District administration has received feedback from concerned parents about this change and we have developed a plan to reassign staff from other functions to resume contact tracing today. We will also resume sending cover letters. We will continue to conduct contact tracing and produce letters on an ongoing basis for the remainder of the 2021-2022 school year. »
So far, 101 students have tested positive and 14 staff members have tested positive.
“The district continues to implement bulk testing, five days of weekly evening testing through a partnership with Virus Geeks, and we recently hosted a 3-day vaccination event at College Park Elementary,” reads the new release.
The district still says testing and masking is the best way forward, and they continue to ask the community to operate with caution as if exposed.
Take a look at the isolation guidelines:
- Stay home for at least five days – Day 1 starts the day after you test positive.
- Isolation may end after the fifth day if symptoms are not present or if symptoms resolve.
- Staff and students must show a negative test result or undergo a rapid antigen test upon returning to work/school.
The recommendation is to test with a rapid antigen test and not a PCR test.
If you cannot test or choose not to test, and symptoms are not present or disappear, isolation may end after the 10th day.
In case of fever, isolation should be continued until the fever subsides.
The San Mateo-Foster City School District offers free testing for students and staff.
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