LAUSD reports first coronavirus outbreak of year, with 11 cases at Grant Elementary
The Los Angeles Unified School District reported its first coronavirus outbreak at a school site on Wednesday, just a week-and-a-half after the start of the school year.
Grant Elementary School in East Hollywood reported 11 active coronavirus cases among staff and students, with seven of those believed to have been spread on campus, according to the most current information on the district’s COVID-19 testing dashboard. It was last updated at 10 p.m. Tuesday.
County public health officials are treating the situation at Grant as an outbreak, and all students in the class were instructed to isolate or quarantine, a spokesperson for the school district said. Officials have not identified the affected classroom.
“Los Angeles Unified today confirmed that the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health identified a COVID-19
outbreak at Grant Elementary School,” the district said in a statement. “The cases are concentrated in a single classroom and Los Angeles Unified is fully cooperating with the Department of Public Health. The District has alerted all those potentially impacted and the quarantined class has been provided with instructional materials to continue their studies.”
School board member Jackie Goldberg, whose district includes Grant Elementary, said given the resurgence of coronavirus cases throughout the county and the fact that children under 12 aren’t yet eligible to be vaccinated, some transmission was expected. However, she believes it is still safe for families to send their children to the campus because of the multiple safety measures in place, including weekly COVID-19 testing, mandatory masking indoors and outdoors, improved ventilation systems and other precautions.
“It was caught quickly,” she said about the outbreak. “That’s why testing every week is so important. … The reality is we caught it quickly, we worked with the public health department, we immediately reached out to the families of the children involved. … Those are the things that tell (families) we are watching carefully.”
Grant is the only school in the district since students returned to campuses on Aug. 16 that has reported any school-based transmissions.
District officials have for months insisted that the best way people can protect themselves from getting severely sick if they contract the coronavirus is by getting vaccinated.
On Tuesday, the district announced it will resume its mobile vaccination clinics. Starting next week, mobile teams will travel to every middle and high school in the district to offer vaccinations to all eligible students and employees. Students ages 12 to 15 must be accompanied by an adult while students ages 16 and older may bring an adult or a signed consent form.
Appointments may be booked through the district’s Daily Pass. To make an appointment or for information about when a mobile clinic will pop up at a specific school, visit achieve.lausd.net/covid or call 213-328-3958.