An unvaccinated teacher without a mask infects her primary school students with covid-19

By: MRT Desk

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Una profesora no vacunada y sin mascarilla contagia a sus alumnos de primaria con el covid-19

An unvaccinated teacher at an elementary school in Marin County, California, infected half of his students with coronavirus, as well as some of their relatives, after presenting themselves in the classroom while experiencing symptoms such as “cough, apparent fever and headache,” says a report, published this Friday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The county Department of Public Health began an investigation of that outbreak on May 26, three days after the teacher reported that she had tested positive for the coronavirus. The woman, who initially attributed the symptoms to an allergy, was one of two staff members of the educational institution who had not been vaccinated.

Subsequently, 22 of the teacher’s 24 students took a test and 12 of them were infected with the virus. Most of these were seated in the first two rows of the classroom. According to the experts, the teacher occasionally read aloud to the children, who did not have masks, despite the school’s requirements to wear them when they are indoors. The experts concluded that the infection rate in the affected class was 50%, while in the first two rows it was 80%.

Four students from other elementary classes also tested positive: all of them were siblings of three students of the unvaccinated teacher, “and it is assumed that the exposure occurred in their respective homes,” the CDC detailed, noting that children under 12 years cannot be inoculated, so your safety depends on other adults getting vaccinated to minimize the spread of SARS-CoV-2.

In addition, four parents were infected – only one of them was not vaccinated – as well as six students from another grade, who began to present symptoms after one of them organized a pajama party, according to authorities.

Some evidence gathered throughout the investigation suggests “that the infections that occurred in the two classrooms were probably part of the same outbreak,” the CDC noted, detailing that of the total of 26 elementary school students and their contacts, at least 18 of them contracted the Delta variant. “The infection rate of the outbreak highlights the increased transmissibility of the Delta variant and its potential for rapid spread, especially in unvaccinated populations, such as schoolchildren too young for vaccination,” the report says.

Experts also stated that the impact of the outbreak on the wider community may have been limited thanks to Marin County’s high vaccination rate. However, they noted that new evidence for the “high transmissibility of the Delta strain, even among fully immunized people, supports the recommendations to wear masks in schools“The use of an appropriate mask, routine tests, ventilation and staying home while symptomatic are important to ensure the safety of teaching in schools,” they concluded.

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