140+ Pasco students, staff were sick the 1st week of school. Most had COVID
About 80 students in 20 Pasco schools missed the first days of classes last week because of COVID-19.
And school officials are still investigating about 60 more cases of sick students and employees.
Pasco is the first district in the Tri-Cities to update its public COVID dashboard of cases among students and staff.
Richland started its weekly posting on Thursday with 10 COVID cases, and Kennewick expects to begin Sept. 7.
Pasco is the only district planning to give a daily report of COVID infections in its schools. The others plan weekly posts.
One Kennewick mother told the Herald she already was frustrated that it was just the second day of school and her third-grader had come into close contact with someone with COVID and had to stay home and quarantine.
If he doesn’t develop symptoms in seven days and has a negative COVID test, he can return to school.
“I’m just so irritated that this happened so quickly,” said Savannah Tranchell. “It’s not the school’s fault. I know that they’re doing everything that they can. ... We have to work in the best interest of the kids to keep them safe, keep them healthy and keep them in the classroom.”
Already, the small Dayton School District about 60 miles east of the Tri-Cities had to close its middle and high schools last week because of rising COVID cases. Just one week after the school year began, the district sent its 200 students home for remote learning.
Tri-Cities districts are trying to avoid that from happening here.
And their COVID dashboards are one tool to keep parents and others aware of how many students and staff are getting sick.
The numbers don’t show where they were infected or if they they passed it on to anyone else in school. They do show what schools the students attended, and whether the illness forced a classroom to be closed.
The Pasco district’s cases are being reported in all grades and schools.
For the first week, Reynolds and Stevens middle schools and Chiawana High School already had 10 each and Robinson Elementary reported eight people sickened.
School officials say six students came to school while they were infectious. And seven employees with COVID were at work sometime during the first week.
Information about the students comes from parents calling in to report that their child has COVID-19 and can’t attend school, said Shane Edinger, the district’s director of public affairs.
Most of the reports were called in Monday, the day before classes started. The district doesn’t list how long the students were ill before then.
In Richland, six students and four employees reported having COVID Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
School closure rules
Local and state officials are determined to keep students in schools after they were out of class for much of the 2020 school year.
State rules have been adjusted with that in mind. That includes requiring masks indoors and keeping a 3-foot minimum between students.
The districts, working with the Benton Franklin Health District, are taking a layered approach that includes masks, distancing, ventilation and COVID testing.
Statewide, teachers and school employees have been ordered to be fully vaccinated by Oct. 18 or have to file a medical or religious exemption.
Students and staff are required to wear masks while inside the buildings and when they are not eating lunch.
COVID-19 rates have risen sharply in Benton and Franklin counties as the delta variant spreads.
The two counties had a combined case rate of 980 new cases per 100,000 people of all ages for two weeks, as of Monday. Franklin county’s case rate was above 1,000 for the first time since December.
The rate for children ages 5 to 14 in both counties was 745 new cases per 100,000 children over two weeks.
For teens 15 to 19 the rate hit 1,192 in mid August and was at 1,075 as of Wednesday. Case rates for adults ages 20 to 39 are even higher.
Hospitals have been stretched to capacity as they deal with an influx of new patients, the majority of them young to middle-aged adults who have not been vaccinated.
While the case numbers have been rising, Dr. Amy Person, health officer for the bicounty health district, said schools took the safety measures seriously and they worked. That included increasing ventilation, wearing masks, social distancing and an emphasis on hand washing.
Most of infections of students and school staff last year started outside of the school buildings, said health officials.
This year, they have the added benefit of the vaccine being available to anyone older than 12, Person said a news conference last week.
Schools are under a state order to provide in person instruction. The Tri-City school districts were among the first to return to in-person classes last year.