Marinscope
As it turned out, it was a bad time to travel to the East Coast. COVID-19 is surging there.
But after two years of lockdowns and social distancing, Marin students jumped at the opportunity to go on a traditional student field trip to Washington, D.C., which had just come out of a two-year pandemic hibernation.
More than 50 of the Marin kids came back from the trip with very mild cases of COVID-19.
The situation was announced by the Marin Public Health Department. The health department said this in its thrice-weekly email:
“Last week several groups of 8th grade students from schools across Marin County participated in a traditional annual field trip to Washington D.C. Among a subset of 77 students from two schools who returned Sunday, April 10, 22 tested positive for COVID-19 prior to returning to school the next day. Because this signifies elevated risk associated with participating in this trip to the East Coast, Marin County Public Health issued an advisory to all middle schools offering guidance on April 11. As of April 13, 56 students have tested positive. All infected students have reported mild or no symptoms, and none are hospitalized. About 90% of eighth graders in the county are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and over half have received their booster shot.”
So far, there has been no in-school transmission of the virus as a result of the trip.
About 112 students made the D.C. trip. Many of the kids were from Mill Valley, though the trip was not a school event. It was organized by a private educational travel company.
School and county authorities reported no problems getting all involved tested and offered the following guidance to schools and trip participants:
– Students and staff who participated in this trip may return to school unless they are symptomatic for COVID-19 or test positive for COVID-19.
– Students and staff who participated in this trip should test prior to returning to school and repeat testing 5 days after return, or sooner if they develop symptoms.
– Returning trip participants should wear a mask indoors at school for 5 days after return.
While the East Coast has experienced a surge in COVID-19 cases, Marin has held relatively stable. The Marin County Health Department told Marinscope that so far the latest variant of COVID-19 – BA.2 – has not caused a big uptick of cases in Marin.
The department is watching it very closely.
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