The 2021-2022 school year began in some public and private schools in the U.S, and others will start in the following weeks or days. At the same time, the Delta strain has become responsible for more than 93% of cases in the U.S, and the CDC published new school guidance recommending mask wearing for everyone. Parents have the difficult mission of sending their children to school and hoping they are doing everything they can to keep them safe from the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
116 Covid-19 infections have been reported
Recent articles mention that New Orleans public schools have already reported 116 Covid-19 infections and that 638 students and teachers or staff members are in quarantine. Sixty-three of those infected were not on a school campus, but there is no data to find out how many staff members and students were among those 116 active cases.
St. Tammany Parish Public Schools reported 54 Covid-19 infections in students and 36 in teachers and other staff members. It is essential to mention that this school district has over 37,000 students attending classes. All these cases are the first ones to be reported for the 2021-2022 school year. Some of the staff members infected are from schools that have not yet been opened to students.
If one student tests positive for the SARS_CoV-2 virus, the whole class needs to go into quarantine
By becoming close contact with a person infected with the new coronavirus, it means that you need to go into quarantine. This might mean that if your child has a case in his classroom, then the whole class will go into quarantine. The CDC guideline for schools recommends wearing masks in indoor places and crowded open spaces, regardless of vaccination status. The decision came after evidence showed that vaccinated people can still get infected and infect other people.
