News Update

State health official explains rationale for elementary school waivers

The state is offering waivers that could allow elementary schools to open in counties that are on the state’s monitoring list because young children need more in-person interactions and don’t spread the disease as easily as older students, said California’s Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly. Not only do young children tend to thrive more academically with engaging curriculum taught in person, but he said they also learn important social skills such as how to work in teams.

Referring to a large study recently released in South Korea, Ghaly said during a virtual state news briefing Tuesday that young children are not considered “vectors” that transmit Covid-19 in the same way as older teens and adults, in part because they don’t have the same cell markers as those who are older, which develop as they grow “and become portals to Covid-19.” Ghaly said some have theorized that the size of young children and the way they breathe may also contribute to why they don’t tend to be infected by Covid-19 at the same level as adults or to “shed” the virus as much.

He also stressed that the state is prioritizing contact tracing to prevent the spread of Covid-19 at schools when they reopen. And he added that it is very important for schools and counties to offer mental health, counseling, access to social workers, and other supports to students virtually during distance learning, including LGBTQ youth. Offering psychological support to students is an “important area of focus we have and will continue to build on,” Ghaly said.