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TIM VANDENACK, standard examiner
A vial of COVID-19 vaccine is pictured at a homeless clinic held Wednesday, March 31, 2021 at the Lantern House homeless shelter in Ogden.
OGDEN – Weber County’s top health official said every school in Weber County has reported at least one case of COVID-19 among students or staff.
The number of cases in the past two weeks at five county schools has exceeded 15 or, for schools with 1,500 or more students, 1% of enrollment, the halfway point to trigger a testing event COVID-19 Required for Students, Brian Cowan, Head of Weber-Morgan Health Service, said Monday. The facilities include three high schools, a middle school and a primary school.
Still, the situation has not gotten to the point that he thinks a public health order or a mask warrant is deserved. “Our school districts and charter schools are doing a good job working with us and trying to keep the situation under control,” he told Weber County commissioners during his weekly discussion with them on the issue. .
Officials here are paying close attention to the COVID-19 situation in schools in Weber and Morgan counties to guard against a possible outbreak. Cowan addressed the notion of a mask warrant, but only if the workload in schools reached the test level to stay described by state officials – 2% of students in schools with an enrollment of 1,500 or more, or 30 cases at smaller schools.
As it stands, the situation is still manageable, even with 101 cases in Weber County schools, up from 66 last week, he said. Vaccinations among people aged 12 to 18 in Weber County have been increasing at the fastest rate of any age group, Cowan said, and 54% of the population has received at least one dose of the vaccine.
Nonetheless, Cowan reiterated his concerns about non-compliance with quarantine guidelines among students who have been in contact with someone who tested positive for the COVID-19 virus. And county commissioners have also expressed their exasperation, proposing a courier campaign – perhaps a public statement – expressing concern about it.
“What if they know they’ve been exposed and we just ask them to sit down and wear a mask for seven days and they refuse to do that?” My God, that’s how this stuff spreads, ”said Commissioner Scott Jenkins. Quarantine guidelines are another tool to guard against the spread of the virus.
Cowan said he would work on a statement, which Jenkins sees as a way to help the county “not to impose anything.”
“Teach your children responsible citizenship, to respect even others in our community,” said Commissioner Jim Harvey. “That’s all it is. It is that simple. Civility is basic civility.
In accordance with guidelines in effect in Weber County, students who have been in contact with someone infected with the COVID-19 virus are encouraged to stay home, wear a mask and / or show proof of a negative test for the virus. Some students, however, have not followed the guidelines, said Cowan, who first reported the issue to commissioners last week, and school officials have no way of forcing them to do so. comply with it.
“In the absence of a public health order, it’s really kind of a voluntary process,” Cowan said. “Teachers ask students to wear masks but they may or may not cooperate”
Cowan has not identified which schools are approaching test-to-stay case levels. But the numbers on Utah Department of Health COVID-19 website show that several schools in the Weber School District are almost at the midpoint of threshold levels.
Orion Junior High School in Harrisville had 17 active cases of COVID-19 among its 1,070 students, a 14-day case rate of 1.6%. Weber High School in Pleasant View had 15 active cases among its 2,101 student body, a 14-day case rate of 0.7%. Washington Terrace School in Washington Terrace had 13 cases, 2.5% of its 517 students.
The thresholds of 2% and 30 students, depending on the size of the school, are specified in Senate Bill 107, approved earlier this year. Schools that exceed the limits are required to conduct COVID-19 testing of students. Students who subsequently test positive must stay home until the end of a period of isolation, according to the rules.
Those not participating in the tests must self-quarantine at home for 10 days.
Bulletin
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