Covid-19 rates stay low in Clovis Unified, where students have been back for months

Clovis Unified in Fresno County was among the largest and earliest school districts in California to welcome students back to campus this year. And so far, the district has managed to keep the number of cases of Covid-19 low even as large portions of students have opted to return for in-person instruction, the Fresno Bee reports.

“We haven’t had any real crises moments where we have to shut down a whole classroom, for example, or shut down a whole school,” Dr. Rais Vohra, interim health officer for the Fresno County Department of Public Health, said Thursday. “Clovis Unified is doing a fantastic job with bringing kids back on campus safely.”

About 21,010 students are participating in the district’s hybrid program, which combines in-person and online instruction, and about 21,645 are continuing with fully online learning, according to the Fresno Bee.

But there have been some cases of Covid-19, in some circumstances causing activities like sports to be put temporarily on hold. There were 51 cases overall in March, according to the district’s Covid-19 tracker. In April so far, there have been 10 cases where a staff member or student tested positive and had been on a campus or in a district building.