Superintendent Weekly Press Release February 5, 2021
Dear Cedar Bluffs Families,
COVID RISK LEVEL: ORANGE
For the Week of February 5th we remain in Orange falling from 2.71 to 2.57 overall. Both Washington and Saunders county fell lower in the Orange range while Dodge county remained unchanged at 2.57. A Global milestone saw vaccines administered has now surpassed total confirmed COVID cases. Some States have also reached this milestone including Nebraska who has 192,549 confirmed cases and as of February 3 had administered 207,111 vaccines. The DHHS Vaccine Dashboard reflects 3.91% of Nebraskan’s have received at least the first shot. Johnson and Johnson has requested emergency authorization from the FDA to implement their 1 shot vaccine which is 72% effective. Nebraska has released their online registration to receive the vaccine at vaccinate.ne.gov. As you know our school employees had the opportunity to participate in getting their first shot this week. We had 28 that were able to get registered before the registration filled. Of those 28 that received their first shot only 3 had mild symptoms that made them call in sick the next day. Overall, as a school 36 staff members have been able to receive their first shot, while only one has gotten their second. We still have around 20 more that would like to get their vaccination but cannot because they have either been positive within the last 90 days or just couldn’t get registered in time before it filled. We have around another 20 who have decided not to get the vaccine due to doctor recommended health reasons including pregnancies, nursing or other. It is a good idea to talk to your physician if you have any concerns. The CDC has stated that to get to herd immunity we need around 70% vaccinated which is right at our school staff percentage of those who have or will get their vaccination. According to DHHS the new strains have reached Nebraska, or at least the UK version which the vaccines are still effective against with the first reported case early this week. The new strain is 10 times as communicable but has shown no evidence of being more deadly. Here is a breakdown of where Three Rivers is sending their vaccine each week. Since
we had 28 staff this week receive their first dose, we know that on March 3
those same 28 will need to get their second dose and we know that the second
dose of Moderna can cause more elevated symptoms we are looking at possible
closure or alternative enrichment that day as well. More to come on that.
TOTAL POSITIVE: 44-Students, 61-Parent(s)/Family Members, 30-Staff
THIS WEEK POSITIVE: 2-Students, 0-Parent(s)/Family Members, 0-Staff CURRENT QUARANTINE: 7
For the week we had only one staff member who was required to quarantine because their spouse was positive, otherwise all staff are back, and no other staff have been positive. This is the first time since December 11th that I can report zero staff positive for the week. Overall, we have had 30 staff members who have been positive since March 2020, we know from antibody tests that we also had at least 2 other staff members had been exposed at some time. This week we had 2 students test positive and are still in quarantine. While we had another student test that required their siblings to quarantine but tested negative, so they have returned to school. We have another 3 parents who were tested this week, with 6 students who had to quarantine with one of those parents returning a negative test resulting in 2 students returning from quarantine this week. In total we have the 1 staff member, 2 positive students and 4 students awaiting results from the remaining family members making 7 total in quarantine at this time. Over the course of the year, I have reported that we were awaiting results and then forgotten to update those results the following week. So, I have gone back and accurately counted all of those who returned a positive result and updated our overall total positives for the year. #WildcatPride