More than 3,000 coronavirus cases have been reported across Los Angeles County K-12 schools, the county’s public health director reported on Thursday, Aug. 26, offering an early snapshot of the status of local schools in protecting against on-campus transmission of the delta variant.
“The early data we have on schools is somewhat sobering,” said Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer during a public briefing. The data, measured between Aug. 16 and Aug. 22 as students came back to campus en masse for the first time in more than a year, revealed that most of county’s new cases were reported in the mammoth Los Angeles Unified School District. At LAUSD sites, 2,666 cases were reported, with another 484 posted at K-12 sites across the county, officials said.
Most school sites reported only one case. But 15 LAUSD sites — where all students are tested weekly, per the district’s assertive policies aimed at slowing the virus’ spread — and 48 other school sites reported two cases; 84 LAUSD school sites and 39 other school sites across the county reported three or more cases.
So far, even the schools that have reported at least three cases have not necessarily been determined to be outbreak sites, as defined by county Public Health.