Omicron will spread quickly in schools, MS experts say. Are Coast districts listening?
Most of the Mississippi Coast’s 11 school districts are not enforcing a mask mandate as students return to in-person classes this week following the holidays and a rapid spike in omicron COVID-19 cases.
Biloxi, Pass Christian, Ocean Springs, Gulfport and Jackson County School Districts are open this week with optional mask wearing for students and staff, despite calls from Mississippi State Department of Health officials to adhere to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations for universal indoor masking by all students and staff, regardless of vaccination status.
State Epidemiologist Paul Byers said schools should expect a surge of positive COVID cases during the fifth wave in Mississippi, fueled by the highly transmissible omicron variant.
“The schools have historically been a reflection of what’s going on and we’re seeing a lot of community transmission right now,” Byers said. “So I anticipate that when schools get back, that we will see a substantial number of cases that are affecting school-aged kids.”
The spread in schools “is going to depend on some of the internal practices that the school puts in place,” said Byers during a press conference last week.
“Masks are going to be vital. We’ve recommended masks in the indoor school setting really this entire school year and last year as well. It’s going to be real tricky coming back.”
Moss Point is the only Coast District staying consistent with statewide recommendations for mask wearing in their facilities. The district had never eliminated the facial covering requirements.
The Sun Herald did not hear back from Bay St. Louis-Waveland, Long Beach, Pascagoula-Gautier, Harrison County and Hancock County school districts on if their COVID protocols would change or if masks would be required when returning to school.
Some school districts change COVID rules
Several Coast school districts have made changes to their COVID policies.
Biloxi, Gulfport, Ocean Springs and Harrison County Districts said they’re adopting the CDC and MSDH’s recent guidance for the length of quarantine and isolation days.
The CDC last week shortened the length of isolation from 10 days to five days if they are asymptomatic or their symptoms are resolving, with five days of mask wearing.
They also shortened the recommended quarantine time for people exposed to the virus. Vaccinated individuals only need to quarantine for five days now, and those who are boosted may not need to quarantine at all.
Pass Christian schools, one of the last on the Coast to eliminate their mandatory mask policies, started classes in-person on Tuesday in phase one of their transmission plan, which only recommends facial coverings.
A spokesperson said they’ll be monitoring COVID cases closely over the next week and plan to make changes accordingly.
Ocean Springs School District said that while masks are still optional, they have restarted weekly deep cleaning of all buildings.
“We have also stocked all of our buildings and classrooms with PPE supplies and cleaners to be used throughout the day,” a spokesperson said.
Jackson County School District is “going back full force like we did at the beginning of the year,” a spokesperson said, by not mandating masks for students’ return to in-person learning on Tuesday.
“From the onset of this virus we’ve always used data to make our decisions … and I believe that’s how we stayed in school when a lot of schools around the state and country did not, because we assured our parents and our community and we really didn’t have much backlash to that,” Superintendent Dr. John Stryker said on a Sunday night WLOX segment.
Omicron’s impact on children
Last week, state health department officials said the majority of COVID cases in the state are now the omicron variant, a strain over 50% more contagious than delta. In just a few days, omicron cases across the state increased by 80% and hurled Mississippi into a fifth wave.
Omicron “is the most highly contagious variant we’ve seen, and we’re in the midst of a peak of transmission that we’ve never seen, most likely this whole pandemic,” said State Medical Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs during a Wednesday press conference.
Most of those positive cases are occurring in the younger population, Byers said, and the state has already begun to see some pediatric hospitalizations.
“When we look at where most of the cases are right now, it’s in the younger folks. That’s kind of been where the rapid growth typically happens when you have a new variant,” he said.
“Those folks 25-39, that’s where we’re seeing most of our cases now. That’s the rapid growth. We’re also seeing some increases in kids between the ages of 18 and 24. There are more kids in the ICU and in the hospital than we’ve had as we’ve wound down with the delta variant.”
Pediatric vaccination rates in Mississippi lag significantly behind national averages. Only about 4% of children ages 5-11 are vaccinated in the state. Over 20% of children nationwide have received their COVID shots.
“We know that vaccination, especially in those age groups, can help prevent severe illness, hospitalizations and deaths. We’ve got to do better. We’ve got to get more kids vaccinated,” Byers said.
Mask wearing and social distancing are also effective strategies to reduce COVID spread, officials say, especially with the high transmission rates of the new variant.
“We really want to encourage parents, encourage schools to continue to wear a mask… in that indoor setting of the school really regardless of your vaccination status,” Byers said.
“If we can do that simple thing, of making sure everybody’s wearing a mask, we can really try and limit some of the transmission. Don’t go to school if you’re sick. Get your kids tested.”
This article is supported by the Journalism and Public Information Fund, a fund of the Gulf Coast Community Foundation.
This story was originally published January 4, 2022 at 11:52 AM.
