Stanislaus schools report 265 COVID-19 cases Aug. 29-Sept. 4. Nearly 6,000 quarantined
Stanislaus County schools reported 265 COVID-19 cases between Aug. 29 and Sept. 4, with the largest portion among pre-K through fourth-grade students who are not eligible to be vaccinated.
This reflects a decrease of 64 cases from the previous weekly reporting period, according to the Health Services Agency’s schools dashboard.
The data represents the county’s 25 public school districts and 19 private or charter schools, county spokeswoman Maria Blanco said in an email.
Stanislaus County’s indoor mask mandate took effect Saturday, after these cases were reported, but masks already were required inside school buildings.
Pediatric cases have “increased exponentially” across the country over the past month, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Last week saw the largest number of child cases reported in a week nationwide since the pandemic began.
In Stanislaus, 5,923 students and staff were in some form of quarantine as of Wednesday, an increase of more than 1,500 from the previous reporting period. Sixty-two students and staff were isolating after testing positive. More than 110,000 students attend Stanislaus County schools.
Schools reported nine outbreaks and 18 active clusters. An outbreak is three cases linked to the same exposure, and a cluster is two cases linked to the same exposure.
The Health Services Agency reported 679 instances being “monitored for additional cases.”
Just 2 schools test above 1% positive
At Modesto City Schools, 0.38% of students and staff reported a positive test the week of Aug. 28-Sept. 3, which is just lower than the previous reporting period.
Of more than 31,000 students and staff present on the district’s campuses, 105 students and 13 staff tested positive for COVID-19, according to the district’s COVID-19 data dashboard posted Tuesday.
The percentage of students and staff who reported a positive test at all schools remained below 1%. Lakewood Elementary and Robertson Road Elementary reported that more than 1% of the campus community tested positive, respectively translating to four and six confirmed cases.
Modesto City Schools does not report the number of people identified as close contacts.
In the same reporting period, about 0.47% of Turlock Unified School District’s students and staff reported testing positive. The district of more than 14,000 students and about 1,500 staff confirmed 74 cases last week, according to a dashboard updated Friday.
This is nearly the same amount of new confirmed cases as the previous week. Each weekly update shows unduplicated case counts.
Last week, 857 Turlock students and staff were identified as close contacts to someone who tested positive for COVID-19. These students and staff may stay home for 10 days, stay home for seven days and test negative, or continue attending class in person due to full vaccination or two negative tests over a 10-day period.
This story was originally published September 9, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
