COVID-19 cases are rising fast. Can schools reopen safely after the holidays?
Cases are on the rise, a new COVID-19 variant is highly contagious and people have gathered for the holidays.
Now Charlotte-area children are getting set to return to school after an extended break. With district-wide remote learning no longer an option, can they do so safely?
Health officials are spreading the stern message to residents to wear masks and get vaccinated and boosted if eligible — precautions they say will help keep children and staff in the classroom.
COVID cases rose in North Carolina because of the Delta variant. Now state health officials warn that the Omicron variant is spreading rapidly and is expected to cause the highest rates of infections of the pandemic in the coming weeks.
“The Omicron variant is two to three times as contagious as the Delta variant, making it four to six times as contagious as the original COVID-19 virus,” N.C. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Mandy Cohen said in a Dec. 20 advisory.
“Vaccinating and boosting against COVID-19 remain the most effective ways for people to protect themselves from serious illness, hospitalization and death. Early evidence shows that boosters provide a significant level of protection against Omicron.”
Is remote learning an option?
With Omicron spreading, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools parents are wondering if there’s a chance the district could go back to remote learning. Students have been on holiday break since Dec. 20 and are set to return Tuesday.
The answer is no — when it applies to the entire district.
CMS will not go full remote, at least for the rest of this school year, because it can’t. On Aug. 30, Gov. Roy Cooper signed a new law that prohibits school districts from going to full remote learning regardless of the case rate in the county or the emergence of a new variant.
Part of Senate Bill 654 allows remote learning for public school districts, but only under specific circumstances. Districts can switch individual classes and schools on a case-by-case basis to remote instruction due to a COVID-19 emergency. But students must go back to in-person learning as soon as quarantines are over and staff is available.
What can parents do?
Between Dec. 13 and Dec. 19, CMS reported 28 new cases among students and 14 among staff. A total of 79 students and staff were quarantined.
The district requires all students and staff members to wear masks indoors — as the county’s mask mandate requires — and district officials continue to encourage staff members, educators and students to be vaccinated.
“CMS continues to work with vaccine providers to offer vaccine clinics for anyone who is eligible, and many schools continue to host vaccine events,” Vicki Grooms, of the district’s communications team, wrote in the latest board report. “It is recommended for all adults to receive a vaccine booster, and youth ages 16-17 were recently approved to receive the booster.”
To date, about 19% of children ages 5-11 in Mecklenburg County have received at least one dose of a vaccine, district officials said.
Local high spread
Mecklenburg County reported a seven-day COVID positivity rate of 15.4% from Dec. 21 through Dec. 27. The county sits in the red zone of those rates, meaning it has a high community spread. According to the state’s dashboard, Mecklenburg County reported 176,994 cases as of Wednesday.
On Wednesday, there were 2,122 people hospitalized with COVID-29 across the state.
