A masked elementary school teacher infects half of the class with COVID-19, CDC says

MARIN COUNTY, California (Gray News) – An unvaccinated elementary school teacher in California infected half of his class with COVID-19 after reading aloud without a mask, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC reports that an unvaccinated elementary school teacher in Marin County, California, went to work for two days with symptoms of COVID-19 before getting tested for the virus, a test that came back positive on the 23rd. of May.

The professor believed his initial symptoms of nasal congestion and fatigue were related to the allergy, according to the CDC. They had cough, fever and headache.

During the days the teacher was working while symptomatic, they occasionally read aloud without masking their class, even though school orientation required masking inside.

As of May 23, additional cases of COVID-19 connected to the school were reported. A total of 27 cases were finally identified, including that of the teacher.

Twelve of the teacher’s 24 students, all unfit for vaccination due to their age, tested positive for COVID-19. Two of the students were not tested. Students sitting in the two rows closest to the teacher’s desk had the highest infection rate, at 80%.

Six students in a separate grade from the school also tested positive, according to reports after a night’s sleep, and eight cases were identified in parents and siblings of students in both grades.

None of the infected became seriously ill or had to be hospitalized. The delta variant was the culprit in at least 18 of the cases, CDC reports.

The CDC says the outbreak shows that vaccines are effective against the delta variant (only three of those infected were completely vaccinated), but prevention strategies need to be followed to keep students safe during face-to-face learning. These include masking, routine testing, and staying home when they are symptomatic.

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