Marin schools increase safety as omicron swirls

Jan. 5—Marin educators have a new set of strict COVID-19 safety guidelines administered by county public health leaders aimed at protecting 40,000-plus staff members and students.

The guidance, shared in draft form Tuesday, is designed to cope with the steep spike in positive cases for the highly contagious omicron variant.

It ranges from banning spectators at indoor school sporting events to mandatory N95 or surgical masks for school staff members. Also included is a new, shorter five-days-and-test quarantine program designed to have infected people stay out of the classrooms.

Other steps include prohibiting assemblies — or any gatherings of more than 50 people — indoors or outdoors. Also, schools must restrict non-essential visitors and require booster shots for volunteers, visitors, contractors or substitutes who work directly with students.

"Our primary goal is to keep schools open," Dr. Matt Willis, Marin public health officer, told about 200 Marin school administrators during a webinar on Tuesday. "That's why some of these sacrifices are important, just for the next few weeks."

Willis's comments came as results continued to pour in from Marin students and staff members who were given at-home rapid tests to use the day before they returned to school from the holiday break.

As of late Monday, 84 staff members tested positive out of 2,097 results reported, and 341 students were positive out of 8,611 test results reported to the county's online self-reporting form, Willis said in a presentation to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday. That was about a 4% positivity rate, he said.

"This was not unexpected," Willis said. "With omicron, it's about what we would expect."

The preliminary figures did not include more than 20,000 tests results reported to Primary.Health, a separate system being used by some school districts and private schools. Willis said the county was still verifying those results.

Willis added that the countywide daily positive case rate spiked to a high of 412 cases on Dec. 28. That was the highest daily count since the pandemic started and topped the previous high of 172 daily cases set in early 2021.

"It's been a remarkable explosion," he added. "This virus behaves so differently."

He added that the good news for Marin schools is that all the people who tested positive in the at-home testing program are staying home in quarantine, not coming into school, Willis said.

"It's very good that we did this," he said of the at-home testing program.

"Across the nation, schools are struggling with how to reopen safely," he said. "We're really very well-equipped to deal with this smoothly because of our established communication lines."

The measures announced Tuesday include a detailed five-days-and-test quarantine program for students and staff who test positive for COVID-19. Anyone who gets a positive test is expected to stay home, quarantine and test again in five days.

If negative, the students or staff members may return to school. If positive, and still showing symptoms, they could test again on the seventh day. If negative after the second test, they could return to class the next day. If positive, they would stay home the full 10 days and then return to school, without taking another test.

If someone is fully vaccinated and boosted, and was exposed or in close contact with an infected person, there is no need to quarantine at home, the guidelines state. In that case, the person just monitors for symptoms and keeps vigilant on masking indoors or when around others.

The new draft guidelines on quarantine are posted at bit.ly/3q3mDqN.

"This data has just come in from federal and state agencies in the last 24 to 48 hours," said Mary Jane Burke, Marin superintendent of schools, referring to the quarantine recommendations. "We're trying to take the data from the state and apply it to our already successful strategies."

Burke said more at-home tests kits are being distributed to schools so that students or staff who are in quarantine and who need to retest after five or seven days have the equipment to do so. The county is also distributing extra N95, KN95 and surgical masks to school staffers as long as supplies hold out, she said.

The testing schedule, extra masking, sports spectator ban, prohibition on large gatherings and other safety steps are being incorporated into a new 32-point schools safety plan that replaces the previous 30-point plan that schools have been following since the pandemic started, Burke said.

Burke said she and the county public health officials will review the new plan and the new testing and quarantine schedules for the Marin school community at a public webinar at 4 p.m. Thursday. The webinar can be accessed at bit.ly/3pH3M4t.

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