With few mitigation measures, Tucson-area schools seeing ‘uncontrolled spread’ of COVID-19 | Subscriber

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“Cases are spreading very quickly,” said McGovern. “Delta is a different animal than the one we encountered late last year, and the portability is ten times higher than it was in the spring.”

While containment efforts are much more limited than last year, with a recent state law banning schools from wearing masks, overcrowded classrooms, lacking space for social distance, and funding for hybrid learning, the county’s health department is helping on an individual basis schools together to reinforce any mitigation measures that schools can still access.

Vail, which has been open since July 20, has already had numerous classroom closures due to breakouts.

Additional staff, both to distribute students to different parts of campus and to assist those who need to go to distance learning during quarantine, would be helpful, says Debbie Penn, Vail’s assistant superintendent.

The district, like others, not only handles the running of schools and the education of children as part of a typical school year, but it also has to deal with the difficulty that many students require intermittent distance learning.

Penn says they can do it, but that it is a heavy workload.

In the past school year, transmission within schools was relatively low, which experts say was due to all mitigation measures, most notably universal masking and social distancing. In addition to increasing school outbreaks, the state is also seeing an increase in child hospitalizations due to COVID-19.

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