- Days into the school year, COVID-19 outbreaks have already forced thousands of students to quarantine.
- Experts predict that
pediatric infections will continue to rise, leading to more school closures. - Bans on mask mandates while young
kids wait on vaccine authorization make it tough to protect students.
Mere days into the new school year, thousands of kids across the US are already being asked to quarantine following exposure to COVID-19.
In Mississippi, where daily cases have doubled in the last two weeks, $4 were quarantined from August 2 to 6, $4. One Mississippi school, Pearl River Central High School, has $4 since August 5. The entire school district opted to go virtual for at least two weeks to be safe, the $4.
And in Reno, Nevada, more than $4 on Monday after a parent knowingly sent their infected child to school.
"I think this fall is going to be really challenging for schools," Richard Besser, former acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, $4 on Tuesday. "I think children belong in the classroom. But what we're going to see is little outbreaks, clusters in different schools, schools shutting down, reopening."
Besser said he expected $4 than they did last year.
Already, pediatric infections are on the rise: The US recorded nearly 94,000 child
Scientists agree that the Delta variant has made school outbreaks more likely. The variant is two to three times as contagious as the original version of the virus, $4, and vaccinated people can still spread Delta to others.
"The Delta variant has created a new and pressing risk to children and adolescents across this country, as it has also done for unvaccinated adults," Dr. Lee Savio Beers, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, $4 to the Food and Drug Administration.
The letter called upon the FDA to "ensure that COVID-19 vaccines for children can be authorized as swiftly as possible."
Bans on mask mandates make it difficult to control transmission in Texas and Florida
Studies of school transmission last fall indicated that $4 $4. That
"Masking and distancing still works for Delta. It's just that you have to be more meticulous," Hilary Babcock, the medical director of infection prevention at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and St. Louis Children's Hospital in Missouri, $4.
But both Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis recently banned mask mandates in schools. DeSantis even threatened on Monday to $4.
Florida and Texas are $4 than any other US state: On average, Texas recorded 54 pediatric hospitalizations per day between August 1 and 9 (the most recent data available). Florida, meanwhile, recorded 40 pediatric hospitalizations per day over the same period. The national average was just five daily pediatric hospitalizations per state during that time.
Several Florida and Texas counties are pushing back on their state's anti-mask policies, though. In Texas, officials in Dallas and Bexar counties recently won court orders challenging Abbott's school mask ban. And some Florida counties, including Palm Beach, continue to require face coverings inside school buildings and on school transportation, contrary to DeSantis' rule.
As of Wednesday afternoon, however, $4 after being exposed to COVID-19 just two days into the school year. Up to 6,400 Palm Beach students didn't wear
Some Texas schools have found it similarly difficult to enforce mask requirements.
"You can't ask people to wear a mask. You can't require people to stay home. You can't require people to get tested. I felt safer last year coming back to school than I do this year," Becca Harkleroad, a school nurse in Central Texas, $4 on Thursday.
One glimmer of hope is that $4: Pfizer expects to have data about its vaccine's efficacy among this age group by the end of September. That would put the US on track to start administering vaccines to young kids sometime in October, assuming the FDA authorizes them.