COVID outbreaks will continue to happen in schools, whether we like it or not. It has happened before and judging by the new Delta variant of the coronavirus that spreads like wildfire, there’s no telling what school will be the next target.
COVID can also spread among the little ones, unfortunately, as there have been plenty of kids infected. Overall, the coronavirus has caused a total of over 233.3 million infections since it first began at the start of last year, according to data brought by worldometers.info.
Three COVID cases needed to call it an outbreak in a school, instead of just two
According to ClickOnDetroit.com, health officials from the American state of Michigan have a new definition for COVID outbreaks in schools. Therefore, three COVID cases are needed now, instead of the initial two as it was before.
The Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists issues the definition for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Sciences (MDHHS) to take into account.
Part of the updated definition says, as quoted by ClickOnDestroit.com:
Educational institutions (i.e., grades K-12) that have been found by their local health department to have multiple cases comprising at least 10% of students, teachers, or staff, within a specified core group OR at least three (3) cases within a specified core group meeting criteria for a probable or confirmed school-associated COVID-19 case with symptom onset or positive test result within 14 days of each other;
Last month, former FDA chief Dr. Scott Gottlieb brought a shocking claim while he feared the reopening of schools. He said that a number of more than 25 million kids might have been infected with COVID in the US. Being quoted by TheDailyBeast.com, Gottlieb said:
As schools reopen, the schools could become focal points of community transmission and can become environments that aren’t safe for children if we can’t control very large outbreaks from happening in those settings.
