No sign of Covid-19 spread as more California schools reopen; fewer counties now in highest tier of state’s tracking system, official says
There is no indication that school reopenings statewide have led to an increase of Covid-19 spreading in the community, California’s Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said Tuesday.
“We have not seen a connection between increased transmission and schools reopening for in-person learning,” Ghaly said during a noon news briefing Tuesday, adding that it sometimes takes time to see the trends. “But so far, it’s encouraging to see the tremendous effort and planning that communities and their schools and their staff have done to make sure that it’s lower risk for students and staff alike and…I think that’s encouraging for all of California.”
Ghaly’s assessment came as the state announced a decrease from 18 to 16 in the number of counties in the highest level of purple on the state’s Covid-19 tracking system. Three counties have moved from the purple tier down to the red tier, and one has moved from red to purple, bringing the total number of counties in the purple tier to 16. Merced, Ventura and Yuba counties moved from purple to red, while Tehama County moved from red to purple.
The 16 counties in the purple tier educate more than 2.5 million public school students in 402 districts and 604 charter schools, not including private schools. That compares to last week’s tally of 18 counties in the purple tier.
Schools in counties in the purple tier — which indicates Covid-19 is widespread in the community — cannot open for in-person instruction unless they receive elementary waivers for students in grades K-6 or adhere to strict guidance for small groups of students.
Schools in counties in the red tier can reopen for in-person instruction after they have been in that tier for 14 consecutive days. Counties can impose stricter rules for reopening. Schools that were already open in Tehama County which moved back from red to purple must increase Covid-19 testing of staff, but do not need to close, according to state reopening guidance.