At least 250 Denair Unified students quarantined, including football, volleyball teams
At least 250 students in Denair Unified School District were quarantined as of Friday morning, including the entire varsity and junior varsity football and volleyball teams.
Two games were canceled after three Denair High School athletes tested positive for COVID-19 last week, according to a school press release.
“We all practice together, so everybody’s potentially exposed,” head coach Anthony Armas said in the release.
The Denair football team was scheduled to host Ripon Christian on Friday night. Instead, RC will play Riverbank, which was scheduled for a bye week.
Schools and athletic teams across Stanislaus County have been affected by COVID-19 this year as the more transmissible delta variant causes cases to surge.
At Denair Elementary Charter Academy, a single person who tested positive for COVID-19 resulted in 165 students quarantined, according to the release. This is nearly a third of students enrolled at the school, according to the California Department of Education.
“It feels like that was a wake-up call for our community,” Superintendent Terry Metzger said in the release.
Under modified quarantine rules set by the state, students who meet certain criteria can continue to attend school in person during their quarantine period. Denair students who quarantine at home are sent class assignments via packets or links to online lessons, according to the release.
Overall, Stanislaus County schools reported fewer COVID-19 cases last week. Data from seven K-12 school districts reviewed by The Modesto Bee showed less than 1% of each district’s population tested positive for COVID-19.
But the week beginning Sept. 5 included Labor Day, which meant one less day of school testing data and may be one reason why cases across the county decreased, said Brent Powell, an associate professor of public health promotion at California State University, Stanislaus.
This story was originally published September 17, 2021 at 12:32 PM.
