by Jay Joseph ’22

As of September 28, MCPS has not had a Covid-19 outbreak. There have been about 328 Covid-19 cases spread out evenly between MCPS schools in total since the beginning of August. At most, there have been 11 cases at one school. 

More than 97 percent of people ages 12 and up have received their first shot of the Covid-19 vaccine, and more than 88 percent of people are fully vaccinated in Montgomery County. MCPS has required all staff to provide proof of vaccination by October 29. Montgomery County has also exhibited one of the lowest community transmission rates in the United States. However, MCPS continues to expand upon its Covid-19 prevention measures with the county’s transmission rate at a 14-day average new case rate of 11.5 new cases per 100,000 people and about 1,700 students and staff quarantined after the first week of school.

Outbreaks have occurred in schools across the United States, causing many school closures. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) observed that these closures occurred when schools did not implement or enforce Covid-19 prevention strategies effectively, such as mask-wearing requirements, adequate ventilation, and limited class sizes. Likely because of the high vaccination rate and extensive preventative measures (such as in-class air purifiers, the indoor mask mandate, and school-provided masks), MCPS has not had an outbreak. 

Another study by the CDC observed a low school-related transmission rate in 11 school districts in North Carolina in the fall of 2020 despite the high transmission rate in those communities at the time due to the districts’ strict implementation of prevention strategies, including mask-wearing and social distancing. It’s important to note that MCPS is currently in a much better place with a substantially lower transmission rate, a highly vaccinated population, and extensive prevention methods.

MCPS will only move to a hybrid learning model or close schools and transition back to a fully virtual model at the guidance of state government officials. That said, it is unlikely that MCPS will close school buildings in the coming months due to Gov. Larry Hogan’s effort to have schools be and remain open for in-person learning since last August.

However, students in grades K-6 are still highly vulnerable to contracting the contagious Delta variant without vaccines. While the recent trials of Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine proved that a lower dosage of the vaccine was safe and effective on kids ages 5-11, it will take a few weeks at least for the vaccine to gain emergency use authorization for distribution and even longer to fully vaccinate these grades.

As a result, MCPS has required that unvaccinated individuals who come into close contact with people exhibiting at least one symptom of Covid-19 to undergo rapid and PCR testing. Close contact is defined as within three feet of the symptomatic individual for 15 minutes indoors and within six feet outdoors while eating or drinking. So far, only 25 percent of MCPS’s quarantined students and staff proved to be true close contacts of an individual who tested positive. If their parents and guardians have not consented to the test, they must quarantine for at least ten days or until the symptomatic individual tests negative for Covid-19 or receives an alternative diagnosis. 

MCPS has announced a “Say Yes to Test” outreach campaign to encourage all parents and guardians to consent to Covid-19 screening testing for their child. If all students have consent to testing, it is far more likely that schools will stay open.

MCPS adaptive response to Covid-19, along with its extensive prevention methods, lower community transmission rates, and vaccinated high school population, should prevent outbreaks that would result in school closures in the coming months.