San Mateo County's COVID-19 isolation protocols is causing high school students and teachers to call out sick to quarantine as the omicron variant surges.
Students testing positive ahead of the spring semester's start on Wednesday led to empty desks in classrooms during the semester’s first week.
The San Mateo Union High School District has provided all staff and students with N95 masks to tighten mask-wearing expectations due to the omicron variant’s contagiousness.
"Our attendance was about 80%, at least in the classes I was in and as I looked around to talk to other people," Dr. Kevin Skelly, San Mateo Union Superintendent, told KCBS Radio. "So that’s 80% of students who really want to be here, and so families are counting on us. So I really will work like heck to make sure that we keep schools open."
Skelly said he taught a physics class this week due to a substitute teacher shortage, on top of teachers being out. San Mateo County still requires anyone who tests positive to isolate for 10 days from the onset of symptoms, even after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and California public health officials shortened the isolation and quarantine period to five days.
"Frankly, if the CDC has five days, we would rather that because obviously we’ve got teachers now who are going to be out the rest of this week, and most of next week or all of next week," he said.
Skelly said having teachers out for 10 days puts a strain on the system, but he is optimistic the district can navigate this latest surge.
"We are hopeful that this is the beginning of the end, he added. "We want to do the best that we can for students all the way through."
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