Increasing coronavirus outbreaks in LA schools, some related to athletic activity

Last week, Los Angeles County recorded eight coronavirus outbreaks in schools from kindergarten to high school. This is an increase from the previous week’s three cases. A recent outbreak has infected 72 students, up from 40 last week.

However, fewer students and staff have been exposed to the coronavirus in these outbreaks as a sign that school-based COVID-19 safety measures are promising. Last week, 211 people were exposed, down from 238 last week. It started in the Los Angeles Unified School District, the second largest school district in the country.

“This is a better understanding of who is being exposed and is working to reduce exposure and unnecessary quarantine of students by using cohorting, distance strategies and seating charts in the classroom. It likely reflects the great efforts of the school, “said Barbara Ferrer, director of public health at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.

Many of the outbreaks are related to athletic activity or do not follow the COVID-19 protocol. Outbreaks are defined by related cases involving three or more people who may have been infected at school or in school activities.

Of the 17 school outbreaks identified since early August, eight were related to youth sports and an additional eight were related to classrooms. The classroom outbreak infected 117 students and 7 staff. One was hospitalized, Feller said.

Risk factors for infection in schools include inconsistent use of improper masks indoors, visible sick people appearing in schools, lack of ventilation, corridors, cafeterias, break rooms, playgrounds, classrooms, etc. Includes a lack of physical distance at the location of. Often you can’t keep a distance because you don’t have enough space. State and county guidelines encourage, but do not require, physical distance in the classroom.

“The findings from these outbreaks suggest that the risk of infection is highest in the presence of close, unmasked contact with symptomatic people,” Feller said.

Between August 15th and 29th, there were reports of 5,207 cases of coronavirus among students and 729 cases among staff among 1.5 million students and 200,000 staff in Los Angeles County. bottom.

However, many of the identified cases of coronavirus occur in schools and places where there are only one or two cases. Of the 1,871 schools and related sites that reported cases of coronavirus, 720 reported 3 or more cases.

LA Unified Ambitious coronavirus testing programThis requires weekly screening of all students, teachers, and staff (more than 500,000) for a foreseeable future. According to data provided by the Public Health Service, the effort is so great that the number of weekly tests performed through the LA Unified program represents more than 50% of the county’s weekly test results.

“Most of these cases have been identified by regular screening, and these are actually asymptomatic people,” Feller said.

Still, she said it was important to identify these cases so that infected people would be removed from the classroom until they recovered and were no longer contagious.

Even if many schools in LA County are reopened, the total number of new coronavirus infections throughout the county is actually declining.

Overall, LA County reported an average of 2,596 new cases per day last week. This is a 25% decrease from two weeks before many schools began reopening.

The test positive rate, which measures the percentage of tests that confirm coronavirus infection, also dropped significantly from 3.5% on August 17 to 2.5% on Tuesday.

School-aged children in Los Angeles County are in a better position than children in other parts of the country. There are several regions of the country where the COVID-19 hospitalization rate for children is at the highest pandemic.

But in Los Angeles County, children’s COVID-19 hospitalization rates are “near anywhere [what] They were during our winter surge, “Feller said.

“This pattern may reflect the fact that many adults are vaccinated and most people wear masks,” Feller said.

Nonetheless, concerns about delta variants have led LA County health authorities to maintain stricter quarantine standards in schools for at least a few weeks than California requires.

LA county officials have “closely contacted” the infected person for at least 15 minutes a day and ordered unvaccinated students within 6 feet of the person to be sent home and quarantined for at least 8 days.

On the other hand, if both the infected and close contacts wore masks during the entire period of exposure, the state does not require quarantine for close contact.

Before easing quarantine standards, Feller said he would like to review the data for a few more weeks to make sure that it “does not have the unintended consequences of producing a lot of spread in schools.” The COVID-19 vaccine is only approved for people over the age of 12.

However, LA County health officials have recently removed the weekly testing requirement if all adolescent athletes or related staff have been completely vaccinated or have recorded a coronavirus infection within the last 90 days. Also, when playing outdoors, children under the age of 12 no longer need a weekly test.

The Public Health Service has also removed the requirement that youth athletes and staff be tested for coronavirus within 72 hours of the match.

At a briefing on Wednesday, Debra Duardo, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Education, said three school districts in LA County have adopted vaccination obligations. Two of the three school districts she nominated, ABC Unified and Palmdale School Districts, said the information was incorrect and there was no obligation for student vaccines. Third district, Culver City UnifiedApproved student delegation, but has not yet entered into force.

A county spokesperson later corrected this information.

Duard also nominated 13 school districts considering mandatory vaccines, but a spokesman said this information had not been confirmed and may have changed since the school district survey on August 19. Stated.

However, according to officials in these districts, there are school systems exploring this option, such as Los Angeles Unified and Santa Monica Malibu Unified.

The LA Teachers Union requires students to require vaccines.

Times staff writer Laura Newbury contributed to this report.