Update: SLO County schools have reported more than 1,100 COVID cases
Schools in San Luis Obispo County have reported hundreds of positive COVID-19 cases among students and employees since the start of the 2021-22 academic year.
In total, 1,178 cases — 1,043 involving students, and 135 involving employees — had been reported to The Tribune as of Nov. 16.
That’s more cases than was reported all of the 2020-21 academic year, which was 774, according to The Tribune’s data.
This academic year, SLO County schools have reported, on average, more than 86 new student COVID-19 cases every week since the start of the school year, according to Tribune data.
About an average of 10 new teacher coronavirus cases have been reported each week, data show.
For context, there are about 33,000 students in San Luis Obispo County, according to the California Department of Education. That means more than 3% of local students have tested positive for COVID-19 just this academic year.
Paso Robles Joint Unified School District, Shandon Joint Unified School District and the San Luis Obispo County Office of Education are not reporting COVID-19 case numbers on a school-site basis.
Bellevue-Santa Fe Charter School in Avila Beach has not yet sent its COVID-19 case data to The Tribune.
All schools — public, charter and private — are required by law to follow guidance from the California Department of Public Health and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
For example, students are required to wear face coverings indoors and while on school buses, and employees are required to wear masks indoors while in the same vicinity as students. Under those rules, no physical distancing requirements need to be in place.
The San Luis Obispo County Public Health Department has said it supports these COVID-19 safety measures.
The Tribune gathers data of positive COVID-19 cases in students and employees at all public school districts in the county.
Many COVID-19 cases reported by local schools appear to be a result of community transmission, rather than classroom or school site transmission, according to county public health and education officials.
In the database, “not yet reporting” means that school district has not yet sent COVID-19 case data to The Tribune. “Not reporting” means the school district will not report COVID-19 case data to The Tribune, but may report such data to the county public health department.
This database will be updated weekly. It was last updated Nov. 16:
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You can help The Tribune cover COVID-19 in schools this year by reporting case, exposure and quarantine notifications or advisories you receive from your school. You may also report if your kids’ school is not requiring face masks.
To do so, click here to be directed to a Google form. Or copy and paste this link into your browser: https://forms.gle/ZQndY4z5ZHviFBg48
How many COVID-19 cases did schools report last academic year?
During the 2020-21 school year, The Tribune gathered COVID-19 case data from all public schools in San Luis Obispo County, as well as some private schools that released the information. Many private schools refused to release their COVID-19 data to The Tribune.
Last academic year, schools opened in phases to in-person learning with most North County districts bringing back elementary schools kids to hybrid, in-person learning in late November and other districts following in February and March.
All San Luis Obispo County school districts had implemented an in-person, hybrid learning model for many students to resume in-person instruction by the end of March. Districts, in general, said that about half of their students chose the hybrid model, while the others chose to stay home for 100% distance learning.
By the end of the 2020-21 school year, a total of 514 students and 260 employees reportedly tested positive for the virus, according to The Tribune’s data.
Cases were reported in every district and nearly every school.
Schools saw a substantial uptick in coronavirus cases between December and February — when the coronavirus pandemic locally hit the hardest.
By about May, however, the number of cases reported from schools slowed somewhat. Most of the cases reported by that time were from students rather than employees.
At that time, COVID-19 vaccines were widely available for adults and especially for classroom teachers and other school staff in regular contact with students.
How is this year different?
All schools in San Luis Obispo County are now open to full in-person instruction.
Classrooms look much like they would have pre-pandemic, except that students and teachers are required to wear face masks.
Additionally, COVID-19 vaccines are now more widely available. The vaccines are shown to slow the spread of the virus and will protect individuals from getting seriously sick from the disease.
Individuals 12 years old and older are eligible to get vaccinated against COVID-19 in San Luis Obispo County.
About 65% of residents have gotten fully vaccinated so far, according to the county Public Health Department.
What can I do to protect my kid from COVID-19?
Besides having kids wear masks, local pediatricians have strongly encouraged all eligible individuals to get vaccinated. That’s the best way to protect young kids, who cannot yet get the shots, and others from serious side effects of the virus, experts say.
“We don’t know for sure how everyone will react to this illness,” pediatrician Dr. Rene Bravo said. “And just like all human illnesses, some people get things mildly, some people get things severely. Some people have complications of what most people would consider very mild illnesses. So the human spectrum of responses is very unpredictable.”
Bravo said he would never advise parents to “just take a chance” simply because kids are less likely to experience severe symptoms of COVID-19.
He’s treated a patient who contracted multi-system inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), which has been linked to kids who became sick with COVID-19.
That patient needed to be airlifted out of San Luis Obispo County to receive special care, the pediatrician said.
Other local doctors talked about treating kids who had contracted MIS-C or other severe symptoms of COVID-19 during a Teens, Tweens & The COVID-19 Vaccines panel discussion hosted by the San Luis Obispo County Office of Education on Aug. 10.
“I had an actual patient with an inflammatory consequence of COVID — a very bad abdominal infection,” Dr. Tamara Battle of Central Coast Pediatrics said during the Aug. 10 discussion. “And I can still remember being in the room with him and his mother and able to get that patient admitted locally but telling that mom I didn’t know if he could stay local. I didn’t know if he was going to go to an ICU. He was very sick and very ill.”
“As a pediatrician, we drive our business through health,” Battle added. “So if there’s one thing that can be done to maybe avoid that level of illness in a child, which is a vaccine, I’m going to support that.”
The doctors in the panel discussion expressed concern that as the number of kids who contract COVID-19 continues to rise, the number of kids who contract serious side effects of the disease may also rise.
Getting your kid vaccinated against COVID-19 will protect them from serious illness, Bravo, Battle and the other doctors at the Aug. 10 discussion agreed.
Why are schools required to mandate masks on campus?
The State Public Health Officer has authority under the Health and Safety Code to take necessary measures to prevent the spread of disease, including COVID-19.
On June 11, the State Public Health Officer ordered all individuals to follow the California Department of Public Health face covering guidance, mega events guidance and any amended guidance for kindergarten through 12th grade schools, according to attorneys for Lozano Smith, a firm that represents local school districts.
The California Department of Public Health released update guidance for K-12 schools on July 12 which required students to wear face coverings indoors and adults to wear face coverings indoors while sharing space with students.
Certain exemptions apply to the mask mandate such as for children under two years old, those with a documented medical condition and someone who is hearing impaired where seeing a person’s mouth is essential to communication.
Should schools not follow such guidance, they could have liability exposure, face misdemeanor charges, receive a public health order to close a school, lose future COVID-19-related public funds and be investigated by Cal/OSHA, according to Lozano Smith attorneys.
This story was originally published August 27, 2021 at 3:45 PM.
