Public schools disinfected as US braces for safe schools reopening
Washington:
Undeterred by the coronavirus, schools in several U.S. states have reopened in-person classes – but some have already been hit by large quarantines of students and staff in the wake of new outbreaks.
In Mississippi – the state with the highest positivity rate in the country with 22% of all people tested, sick or not – the Corinthian school district has so far seen eight confirmed cases in multiple schools, according to reports. responsible.
As a result, more than 100 people who have come into close contact with them have been asked to self-quarantine, quickly disrupting local authorities’ plans for a return to normalcy.
The city of Corinth is located in Alcorn County where the positivity rates are 25% and the intensive care units are full, according to the tracking site CovidActNow.
Health experts say that if the proportion of positive tests in any given location is more than 5%, the virus is spreading rampantly.
Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves told Fox News the quarantine was in fact proof that things were working as they should.
“Those who want to attack everyone see this as a negative, I actually see it as a positive,” he said.
“We have identified positive cases, we have traced them by contract and we are trying to protect these children.
“Edifying story”
The district unrest highlights the dangers of reopening schools, a key priority for President Donald Trump as he tries to revive the economy ahead of the election.
After pressure from the president, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month released new guidelines on how to open classrooms.
He strongly weighed his recommendations for in-person learning due to the negative impact of lockdowns on social development and mental health.
The data also shows that distance education exacerbates the educational attainment gaps between socio-economic groups.
This goal is shared by outside experts, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, but a major issue is the lack of clarity as to when it is safe to reopen.
In the absence of official guidelines, the experts devised their own parameters.
“The Mississippi example is a clear warning of what reopening will look like if community-level transmission is not contained,” said Thomas Tsai, professor at Harvard and fellow of the Harvard Global Health Institute.
Harvard has created a dashboard that assigns each county in the country a color score based on a seven-day average of its daily per capita cases.
With an average of 37 daily cases per 100,000, most of Mississippi is in the “red” – which means it is clearly dangerous to reopen.
“No amount of mask and HVAC filtration in schools will minimize the risk in the event of a COVID fire burning in the surrounding community,” Tsai said.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo told reporters on Friday that schools would reopen, citing his state’s success in tackling the virus, with schools planning a part-time approach.
The state averages three new cases per day per 100,000, placing it in the “yellow” category on the Harvard dashboard, which means schools can open with a robust testing plan.
“It’s not zero risk, but it’s an acceptable risk given the benefits of in-person education,” Tsai said.
Several other major cities, including Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles and Miami, have announced that they will stick to distance learning for now.
But the Republican-led states of Mississippi, Georgia, Tennessee and Indiana opened this week and last.
“Good and necessary problem”
There are also strong indications that officials in Georgia rushed to open too early and without adequate action.
Two students at North Paulding High School have been suspended after posting photos of crowded hallways that went viral on Twitter, according to reports.
One of them, Hannah Watters, 15, told CNN: “I would like to say that this is a good and necessary problem,” quoting late civil rights leader John Lewis.
“My biggest concern is not only to protect myself, but also to keep everyone safe.”
The school, which is also in a county where community transmission is endemic, later overturned its decision, she told CNN on Friday.
For epidemiologist Brandon Brown of the University of California at Riverside, the images painted a disturbing picture.
“The high school students who took pictures of other people walking around the school unmasked revealed a truth that must be seen,” he said.
“They save lives by their actions, if decision makers see the truth leads to change, and unfortunately that’s what it usually takes to do the right thing.”
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
