Fresno-area schools are working to keep students safe during omicron surge. Here’s how
As Fresno County experiences an uptick in COVID-19 cases spurred by the highly contagious omicron variant, public health officials and education leaders are ramping up efforts to keep children safe and healthy in the classroom.
Nationwide, many schools are transitioning to remote learning, delaying openings, and implementing testing mandates. While some high-profile school districts, like L.A. Unified, have implemented mandatory testing policies for students and staff before returning to classrooms, Fresno County’s two largest districts — Fresno Unified and Clovis Unified — have not taken that step. At least not yet.
Implementing campus-wide testing policies remains unlikely for many districts in the face of a massive shortage of COVID test kits across the nation. The county on Tuesday said it would provide more than 160,000 in-home rapid test kits for every K-12 public school student over the next two weeks. Fresno County obtained those kits from the same batch of nearly 6 million kits that Gov. Gavin Newsom promised would be delivered to schools before the end of winter break.
Additionally, Clovis Unified announced in a statement Monday that it would align its COVID-19 quarantine and isolation protocols with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s updated guidelines. The change means students who test positive for COVID-19 can now return to school after isolating for five days rather than 10 days. Students must also provide a negative test after the five-day isolation period.
These efforts come as COVID-19 cases in Fresno County have nearly doubled in a week, and county health officials reported 20 omicron-related cases as of Monday. More cases of omicron are “expected over the next few days as travelers return home and as students return to the classroom,” Dr. Rais Vohra, the county’s interim health officer, said in a statement.
Meanwhile, pediatric vaccination rates for the approximately 206,000 school-age children in Fresno County lag well behind the statewide average. Vaccinations are not yet required for students attending in-person instruction, but will be in the future. Students will be required to be vaccinated for in-person learning starting the term following The Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the vaccine for a student’s grade span. It is unclear when the mandate will go into effect.
As of Monday, a little less than 31% of the county’s youth ages 5 to 17 were fully vaccinated with two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, while 6.1% of children were partially vaccinated with one shot, according to a Fresno Bee analysis of data from the California Department of Public Health. Statewide, there are more than 6.7 million youth ages 5 to 17. As of Monday, more than 40.2% of those were fully vaccinated and nearly 8.4% had received their first dose.
Fresno-area schools aim to protect kids against omicron variant
Despite the spike in COVID-19 cases and low vaccination rates among Fresno County youth, local districts have vowed to keep school doors open this winter.
“We do not foresee the district closing unless required by a higher authority, which is what we’ve communicated all school year,” said Nikki Henry, a spokesperson for Fresno Unified School District. “Our focus will be on maintaining appropriate staffing to keep classrooms open, should there be a rise in infections and quarantines due to the omicron variant.”
Clovis Unified School District Trustee Steven Fogg said the district has not “seen any indications” from the state that a school closure should take place.
“We are not seeing any indications of that at the state level, and definitely don’t intend to locally, especially given all of the health and safety measures we have already put into place,” he said. “We have done a wonderful job here at Clovis Unified– keeping our schools open and our kids safe.”
Joe Prado, the county’s public health director, supports the effort to keep schools open. He said schools may be some of the “safest” places for children to be in due to the enforcement of strict safety measures.
“Schools are safe and our children do benefit from attending school in person,” he said. “The protocols in place and continuing to increase our vaccine amount is really going to benefit the schools but overall benefit the children in our community.”
Still, some parents are concerned those efforts may not be enough.
Erika Ireland’s son attends Ewing Elementary School in southeast Fresno. She said she is worried that an outbreak could disrupt her son’s learning and jeopardize his health.
“I am concerned about the variant and how easily it spreads and how that’s going to affect schools,” she said. “I think that we have a very low vaccination rate in the county and it scares me. I think students are going to get (the virus). We see lots of people not abiding wearing a mask.”
Ireland hopes public health officials make more of an active effort to inform the community about the long-lasting toll the virus has on families.
“Families need to understand the vaccine is helpful at decreasing the symptoms and recovery time, so I do hope more families get vaccinated as a family unit,” she added.
Officials want to boost COVID-19 vaccination among youth
In the meantime, county leaders are partnering with schools to expand access to testing and increase vaccine uptake among children to prevent potential outbreaks.
“It’s a virus of opportunity,” said Prado, the county’s public health director. “When there are unvaccinated individuals, this virus will continue to grow and continue to move throughout our population. That’s why we want to increase the amount of vaccinated individuals in our community.”
In response, county health officials are setting up free vaccination clinics at schools and launching two public health campaigns targeting vaccine hesitancy among parents. The goal is to “normalize” vaccines and make them as accessible as possible, Prado said.
“Children have been severely impacted by this pandemic,” he said. “We’re trying to prevent death. We’re trying to prevent children from being hospitalized. And the vaccine is going to get the best level of protection for our children.”
One of the campaigns targets vaccine hesitancy by drawing comparisons between the COVID-19 vaccine and vaccines that protect against illnesses such as polio and measles. The messages — which will be broadcast on multiple platforms including on social media, radio and television — will describe how vaccines have kept “children safe for generations.”
“It’s a reminder that a vaccine isn’t a new concept — this is something that has been around,” Prado said. “We have a responsibility as a community to ensure future generations are healthy. Our children need to be vaccinated.”
The other campaign focuses on encouraging familial conversations about getting vaccinated, he said. The county is working with community-based organizations to provide that education to families at mobile clinics. He hopes these discussions about the safety and efficacy of vaccines and booster shots will spur more community members to get vaccinated.
“There are children that have an opinion on vaccines and so that’s an opportunity for parents and a child to sit down and have a conversation,” he said. “It’s important when we do our clinics to do as much education and have as many conversations as possible. The Central Valley has been dealing with a significant amount of health burden issues that evolved over decades that have just been confounded during the pandemic.”
The Education Lab is a local journalism initiative that highlights education issues critical to the advancement of the San Joaquin Valley. It is funded by donors. Learn about The Bee’s Education Lab on our website.
This story was originally published January 5, 2022 at 7:00 AM with the headline "Fresno-area schools are working to keep students safe during omicron surge. Here’s how."