Primary schools in the province of San Bernardino could already meet the requirements of the state next week, enabling them to start reopening, provincial officials said on Tuesday, February 9th.
The province has 33.2 new cases of coronavirus per 100,000 inhabitants, or an adjusted rate of 32.7, according to the number of coronavirus tests in the country, according to state data.
The number has improved dramatically in recent weeks – the adjusted rate was 50.2 cases per 100,000 from Tuesday 2 February. The trend suggests that it could soon reach an adjusted rate of 25. Riverside County’s adjusted rate is 44.9 cases per 100,000.
Once the rate was 25 or lower for five consecutive days, school districts could begin reopening kindergartens through sixth-grade classrooms for personal instruction, said Corwin Porter, director of public health in San Bernardino County.
“If our numbers continue to decline, we could be very close by the end of this week,” Porter told supervisors in San Bernardino County.
The projection assumes that rates will not increase due to Super Bowl events. The effects of the Super Bowl should be seen next week, Porter said.
The decision on whether to reopen if it meets state criteria rests with each school district, he said.
“We do consult with them about the process, but that is ultimately the decision on the school district,” Porter said.
Earlier, the province granted waivers so that primary schools in parts of the province could be reopened in lower case, but the state ended the waiver process on January 14th.
The number of new positive cases has declined rapidly since the winter push, Porter said.
But the province encourages people to continue to be tested, which – together with helping people to prevent the spread of the disease – positively lowers the percentage of testing. And if the number of people tested falls too low, the province’s rate will be adjusted upwards, making it more difficult to meet the reopening targets – rather than downwards, as it is now.
“Tests have decreased as the number of cases has decreased,” Porter said. “We encourage people to continue to be tested, even if they have been vaccinated, so that we can lower the positivity rate and move on to red (level).”
The province reaches the red level, which allows more businesses to reopen if it has an adjusted rate of 7.0 or less for two consecutive weeks, and the positivity rates for the province’s overall and economically disadvantaged neighborhoods below 8.0 % has.
“We’ll have to have a more serious case on the red switch in a few weeks,” Porter said.
At present, the San Bernardino City Unified School District does not intend to reopen primary schools, even if they get the green light to do so.
In November, the school board voted for the rest of the 2020-21 school year to continue distance education.
Maria Garcia, Maria Garcia’s spokeswoman, said on Tuesday that “another meeting needs to take place so that the board can even reconsider it”.
The California Department of Public Health is planning an interactive map on their website that will display the reopening status, safety plans and cases of COVID-19 from each school district, but as of February 9, the map was not yet available.
Staff Writer Beau Yarbrough contributed to this report.