As of Monday, Hemet Unified School District’s Dashboard reports 15 recently (last two weeks) confirmed cases of COVID, the highest of all HUSD schools, at Idyllwild School — nine students (same as last week) and six staff members (last week it was four), which is 4.89% of its combined student/staff population — while at Hemet High, 43 students and five staff members are reported as confirmed cases, which is 1.85% of its student/staff population.
Hamilton High reports five students and one staff member as confirmed COVID cases, or 1.3% of its student/staff population. However, remember that the HUSD Dashboard also states: “Positive cases will appear on the Dashboard for 14 days from the date they are reported and then will be removed after the 14th day.” So, HUSD’s Dashboard does not report cumulative confirmed cases throughout the district, but only those cases confirmed during the previous two weeks.
As of Monday, Riverside County Public Health reports 165 total cases of COVID in the Idyllwild-Pine Cove community, with 151 recovered and 2 deaths, leaving 14 cases still active.
For the same period, Riverside County reported a total of 345,257 confirmed COVID cases (3,691 more than last week) with 4,864 deaths (60 more than last week). The county now reports 411 hospitalized COVID patients (165 fewer than last week), with 113 of them being in intensive care units (17 fewer than last week). ICU beds available in Riverside County number 68. According to Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) records, 57.6% of the Riverside County eligible population is now fully vaccinated.
California reported 4,471,635 total confirmed COVID cases (49,550 more than last week), with 67,612 68,362 resulting deaths (750 more than last week).
As of Sept. 22, the CDC reports: The current 7-day moving average of daily new U.S. COVID cases has decreased 17.1% compared with last week.
From the current CDC website: Although fewer cases of and hospitalizations for COVID are reported in children than in adults, “weekly rates of hospitalizations due to COVID-19 have recently increased in children ages 11 years and younger. In fact, these hospitalization rates are the highest they have been since the start of the pandemic. The increases come as many schools across the country have resumed in-person learning.
“Because children can be affected by COVID-19 and have severe complications, schools are encouraged to implement ‘CDC’s Guidance for COVID-10 Prevention in K-12 Schools’ to keep children safe.”
“CDC recommends universal indoor masking for all teachers, staff, students and visitors to K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status. Children should return to full-time in-person learning in the fall with layered prevention strategies in place …”
“In addition to universal indoor masking, CDC recommends schools maintain at least 3 feet of physical distance between students with classrooms to reduce transmission risk …”
“Students, teachers and staff should stay home when they have signs of any infectious illness and be referred to their health care provider for testing and care.”
The CDC notes that “[c]onsistent and correct mask use is a critical strategy to reduce the spread of COVID-19 among children in K-12 school settings. Two recent CDC studies found that counties without school mask requirements had higher increases in rates of COVID-19 cases in children than schools with mask requirements.
“To prevent COVID-19 outbreaks in schools, CDC recommends layered prevention strategies, including universal indoor masking, screening testing, physical distancing and vaccination.”
Another recent CDC study shows that Covid-19 hospitalizations among children and adolescents is increasing with the Delta variant.
Further CDC resources are available at www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/covidview/.