The latest on COVID-19 delta variant’s spread on Thursday showed new cases of 3,226 bringing forth a total caseload of 1,394,488 across Los Angeles county. Public health officials also reported 31 new fatalities, bringing the county’s death toll to 25,181 since the pandemic began.
Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer reported on Thursday that more than 3,000 coronavirus cases have been reported across Los Angeles County K-12 schools. This report offers an early view of the status of local schools in its effort to protect school staff and students alike against the delta variant transmission.
“The early data we have on schools is somewhat sobering,” said Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer during a public briefing.
The data that measured between the dates Aug. 16 and Aug. 22 where students reported back to campus en masse for the first time in more than a year, revealed that most of the county’s new cases were found to be in the mammoth Los Angeles Unified School District.
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According to Public Health officials, at LAUSD sites, 2,666 cases were reported, with another 484 posted at K-12 sites across the county.
“In all of these instances, where there are three or more cases, our team is hard at work determining whether this is an outbreak and if it is an outbreak in a school setting we work closely with the school community to make sure we are mitigating appropriately.”
Most school sites reported only one case, but 15 LAUSD sites — where all students are tested weekly, per the district’s assertive policies aimed at slowing the virus’ spread — and 48 other school sites reported two cases; 84 LAUSD school sites and 39 other school sites across the county reported three or more cases.
However, it is good to note that even the schools that have reported at least three cases have not necessarily been determined to be outbreak sites, as defined by county Public Health.
According to the data, the campuses that are most challenged are those that find it difficult to establish mealtime crowd and safety control and those having a hard time communicating with parents and staff about vaccination events and cont tracking.