There was no mistaking Sonoma County’s chief health official during a back-to-school webinar Tuesday evening.
As county schools leaders worked to provide information and answer questions about the region’s first on-time, in-person return to school since the fall of 2019, Dr. Sundari Mase was abundantly clear about the steps residents should take to ensure greater safety as school sessions commence.
“Get vaccinated if you’re unvaccinated; that’s the best thing you can do right now,” said Mase, Sonoma County’s public health officer.
We agree.
In fact, the only thing that could make us happier than the return of in-person learning next week – and the supercharged education and social-emotional development that comes with it – is a recommitment to the vaccine in the face of a surging coronavirus.
County health leaders say 70% of residents in Sonoma County are fully vaccinated, and 80% have received at least one shot as of Tuesday. That’s great news, but we can do better.
We’re seeing the greatest growth in vaccine recipients among the youngest residents eligible for the shots, and it’s likely those numbers will continue to ratchet up as schools offer vaccine clinics to anyone 12 and older, provided those students have parental consent.
“The vaccines are safe, they are effective and they are free,” said Dr. Urmila Shende, the county’s vaccine chief, adding that the new, delta variant, which now accounts for 93% of new U.S. cases is “aggressive, highly contagious and relentless.”
You should definitely take Shende’s word for it. But if you have any doubts, the county’s numbers paint a sobering picture of the so-called “pandemic of the unvaccinated.”
As of Tuesday, there were 71 patients in the hospital with COVID-19, including 15 in the ICU. More than 80% of those hospitalized, and 90% of those in intensive care are unvaccinated. And 333 of the county’s 337 COVID-19 deaths are among unvaccinated individuals, according to county records.
The good news is that schools have not been shown to play a major role in transmission of coronavirus, and local school leaders have worked to ensure it stays that way, instituting strict masking requirements, hand-washing and sanitization stations and installing state-of-the-art air scrubbers in every building.
That said, school officials are ready to react if problems arise.
Jeni Straight, a nurse with the county’s schools team, said public health staff will monitor outbreaks, and in the event that they spot three or more cases in multiple classrooms, they will be ready to close schools – or classrooms - as necessary.
Straight, though, said she doesn’t anticipate that being an issue.
“We haven’t seen that,” she said, referring to the recent in-person spring semester. “School is a very safe place for kids.”
So far, we’re pleased with the efforts of our educational leaders, including Petaluma City Schools Superintendent Matthew Harris and Old Adobe Union School District Superintendent Sonjhia Lowery, who have clearly made student and staff safety a priority over the summer.
Lowery, a battle-tested leader who started with Old Adobe in June 2020, in the throes of the first wave of the coronavirus, said schools must do what they can to promote a sense of security for all who are returning to the school environment.
“We want kids to feel safe, staff to feel safe and we want families to feel safe coming back to school,” Lowery told the Argus-Courier.
Now it’s up to us to do our part. Make sure to remind your kids about proper mask etiquette. Get vaccinated if you’re not already. Watch out for students returning to school via our city’s various crosswalks. Take care of each other.
We’re not out of the woods quite yet.
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August 12, 2021 at 07:19PM
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Editorial: An exciting, cautious return to school in Petaluma - Petaluma Argus Courier
"exciting" - Google News
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