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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMore than 300 children in Texas day cares have caught COVID-19, and the numbers are rising
Although COVID-19 transmission rates nationwide among children have appeared to remain relatively low, more than 300 children at Texas child care centers have tested positive, and the numbers are rising quickly.
As of Tuesday, there were 950 reported positive cases of COVID-19 307 children and 643 staff members at 668 child care locations. Statewide, 12,207 licensed child care operations are open, and total reported coronavirus cases have risen from 59 cases in mid-May and 576 on June 23.
The rise comes as experts and health officials appear to diverge on how risky it is for children to gather in group settings like day care and school classrooms. The American Academy of Pediatrics is recommending that students be physically present in schools, saying that the educational advantages outweigh health risks. The academy says it thinks 3 feet of social distancing is sufficient for classrooms and stated that "the relative impact of physical distancing among children is likely small based on current evidence and certainly difficult to implement."
But guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that day care center providers consider a minimum of 6 feet of social distancing and dismiss students and most staff for two to five days if they have a confirmed coronavirus case so public health authorities can assess the situation.
https://www.texastribune.org/2020/07/01/texas-day-care-coronavirus-cases-rising/
soothsayer
(38,601 posts)boston bean
(36,225 posts)Can someone please give people some common sense, talking to you American society of pediatrics.
onetexan
(13,079 posts)The kids are on the playground literally rubbing against each other and touching the playground equipment. In TX daycare centers are deemed essential business since parents have to work. It's a difficult situation for parents with small children who can't work from home.
MissB
(15,813 posts)Parents arent going to go back to work unless its safe to park the kids somewhere. Theyre not going to want to put kids in daycare if the centers are sources of covid.
captain queeg
(10,286 posts)global1
(25,294 posts)the kids spread the virus to the parents and other siblings. The parents now take it to work with them and the other siblings take it to their schools.
Covid just goes on and on.
Day Care Centers were a petri dish of sickness even before Covid. Now with Covid they have the potential to become deadly.
Alliepoo
(2,237 posts)Schools in our district (suburb of Columbus OH) are going to open up in August. The school board feels like the risk to kids is small blah blah blah. All the usual precautions-teachers will have temp taken daily (pretty useless) hand washing/sanitizing (ya know the kids arent gonna sneeze or cough into their hands) supposed sanitizing between classes (my grandson in jr hi has about 4 min between classes. The teacher is gonna sanitize 30 desks, chairs and common touch areas in 4 min?) The school busses will be loaded/unloaded so to minimize the kids passing seats while walking the aisle (I guess theyll just sit there holding their breath. No talking, shouting, singing, spewing droplets in the closed up bus) Same with elementary classrooms with no class changes. Sitting all day in a closed classroom With youngsters talking, coughing, laughing,singing, bring kids. Oh-and the kids wont be wearing masks. A high school kid tested positive a couple of days ago. A cross country runner. So now the kids he was conditioning with are at risk. Im so ticked off. Theyre not offering distance learning unless a child is immunocompromised. Pretty much said if you dont want to send your child to school your options are homeschooling or a private school. Even Columbus public schools came up with a better plan. Rotate students for 2 days of classroom and 3 days distance learning. I watch my grandkids before and after school. I dont think Im going to be able to continue to do so. I hope something changes between now and August. Thanks for letting me rant.
uponit7771
(90,371 posts)JCMach1
(27,590 posts)About this for a week from a friend who works for CPS is TX.
I won't send my child to IRL school in this environment. Fortunately, we have synchronous and asynchronously online options.
He will do asynchronous online until we have a vaccine.
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)Even though children aren't as likely to get as sick or die as older adults, they can spread the virus just the same. By packing them all back into the schools, they go home and affect their parents and grandparents and everyone that they interact with at work. Sooner or later, workplace will be hotbeds of infections again and we will have to shut down all over again.
We, as a nation, have fucked up the response to this virus so badly and Trump is primarily to blame. His complete failure on this alone is grounds for impeachment and removal from office. There is no way this is going to get better by November. In fact, I think it will probably only get worse.