The Sweetwater Union High School District updated its masking protocols for the upcoming school year amid rising coronavirus cases and hospitalizations in the county driven by the highly infectious BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants.
The district strongly recommends that fully vaccinated students and staff wear facemasks indoors. Unvaccinated staff and adult visitors are required to wear masks while they are indoors.
To protect immunocompromised individuals, district officials ask “the classroom community to please support each other by wearing masks indoors”.
“An exception where staff or students will be required to wear masks at this point is after they are returning to school following exposure to COVID. These additional protocols are our best way to ensure we can keep our students and staff on campus and engaged in learning this school year,” Sweetwater wrote in a statement.
Families can expect more detailed COVID protocols “explaining items including notification, masking, testing and other safety protocols for students and extracurricular activities” in the coming days, according to the district. Reassessment of masking protocols will come after a 30-day period.
Sweetwater updated its masking protocols the day San Diego county ascended the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “high-risk-tier.
The CDC evaluates each tier based on the number of hospital admission of COVID-positive patients, occupied hospital beds, and the total number of cases in the region. According to the most recent figures, there were 417 COVID-19 positive patients in county hospitals, up from 395 a day earlier. The number in intensive care units is up from 43 to 45.
The county’s Human and Health Services Agency reported hospitalizations for COVID-related illnesses rose 66% in the past 30 days. New ICU admissions rose 68% in the past 30 days. The county reported 2,191 new infections and seven deaths related to the virus on Thursday, increasing the cumulative totals to 857,182 cases and 5,370 deaths.
San Diego Unified School District recently announced it will re-implement its requirement for indoor masking beginning July 18 at all schools and district offices.
“If your student is participating in summer school or other summer enrichment programs, please send them to school or their program with a mask. If they do not have one, masks will be provided. Students and staff will be required to wear their masks while indoors only,” San Diego Unified wrote in a letter to parents.
It is unclear whether the indoor masking protocols will continue into the fall semester. District officials said they are monitoring the COVID-19 community level and “communicate if there are any changes in two weeks”.
