Thousands of Teachers, Students and Staff Quarantined in Schools After In-Person Learning Resumed

Provo, Utah School Prepares For School Year Amid CoVID-19 Pandemic

(Photo : Photo by George Frey/Getty Images)
PROVO, UT - AUGUST 12: Teachers gather in the gym for a beginning-of-the-year meeting at Freedom Preparatory Academy as they begin to prepare to restart school after it was closed in March due to COVID-19 on August 12, 2020 in Provo, Utah. The school is planning to have students return on August 18 for five days a week instruction, but with reduced hours during the day.

After reports of more than 230 coronavirus cases connected to schools, more than 2,000 students, staff, and teachers have been quarantined in five states, halting the return of face to face learning in US schools.

While many have hoped that the reopening of schools could be a stepping stone towards returning to normal, experts have cautioned that it may come at a cost. This is after studies have revealed that children can easily propagate the spread of the virus.

However, there have also been problems with distance-learning, especially for working families. Also, pediatricians have advised that it may have negative consequences for children's development. Thus, sparking the dilemma that has prompted the navigation of re-opening the schools.

But shortly after the reopening of the educational institutions, the rise in the number of COVID-19 cases has resulted in large scale quarantines in schools.

In Georgia, more than 1,100 people including teachers, students, and staff have been placed in quarantine after cases were reported in Cherokee County School District. In-person learning started to open in the district on August 3, since then there have been 59 positive cases reported as of Tuesday. More than a dozen schools in the district have been affected by the two-week quarantine period.

In line with this, Miranda Wicker, a teacher from Georgia told CNN that she does not believe that the re-opening was successful. She also stated that she has spoken with several teachers across the district and they said that they have asked for safety precautions like making masks a requirement. The district superintendent of the county said on a statement that everyone is encouraged to wear masks in places where social distancing seems impossible, however, it was not made mandatory.

Meanwhile, in Gwinnett County which is just near the district and is the location for the biggest school in the state, 28 cases have been confirmed as of the 5th of August, while 263 have been in quarantine.

In other states, the same scenario has played out as school districts in Oklahoma, Mississippi, Alabama, and Indiana also enforcing quarantines before having staff back. The rising number of cases has also made several teachers reluctant for in-person learning.

Rise of Cases among Children

Based on the recent analysis by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children's Hospital Association, in the past four weeks, the number of COVID-19 cases among children increased by 90%.

In a statement by the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Infectious Diseases vice-chair, Dr. Sean O'Leary stated that the cases among children should be given utmost importance.

He said that the number of COVID-19 deaths among children in just a few months almost reached the number of annual deaths due to influenza. Thus, he said that it is not safe to assume that the virus will not affect children.

Moreover, he added that several factors have contributed to the rise in the number of infections in children. He stated that the increased testing, rise in infections in the whole population, and the increased movement of children (may or may not be in schools) have affected the number, KTLA 5 reported.