News Update

54 students, 11 staff test positive for Covid-19 at West Contra Costa Unified

Fifety-four students and 11 staff tested positive for Covid-19 at West Contra Costa Unified during its third week of fall instruction, according to the district. That’s down from a total of 72 cases the previous week — 65 of whom were students, and seven of were staff. The 30,000-student district also had to close one classroom at King Elementary in Richmond during the last week.

At the start of the year, West Contra Costa Unified officials pledged to announce how many Covid cases it has each week on its 21-22 Covid Dashboard. In a message to families Friday, district officials said they will begin updating the dashboard by 5 p.m. daily.

The district’s Covid-19 testing company, Predicine, Inc, has also pledged to deliver test results quicker after parents and teachers complained that the district was taking too long to notify them of potential exposures. Predicine Infectious Diseases CEO Winston Patrick Kuo, in Friday’s message, said the company “accepts full responsibility” for parents’ and teachers’ frustrations, and is changing its own protocols in order to provide West Contra Costa Unified leadership notification of positive cases within 48 hours.