Superintendent Weekly Press Release March 19, 2021
Dear Cedar Bluffs Families,
COVID RISK LEVEL: ORANGE
For the week of March 22, 2021 Cedar Bluffs remains in the Orange Risk Dial at 2.14 unchanged from last week. Saunders and Dodge counties remained the same at 2.14, while Washington County fell from 2.43 to 2.29.
The DHHS website shows 15.9% of Nebraskans have completed their vaccine with a total of 658,770 vaccines administered. According to the Washington Post tracking, 22.2% of all Americans have received at least the first dose and 11.5% of the United States population is fully vaccinated. Nebraska ranks 19th in all the States in the United States with 23.7% of its population having received the first dose and ranks 14th in States for share of population having been fully vaccinated.
There has been a lot of news lately about the new variants being discovered in Nebraska. https://fox42kptm.com/news/loc... Both the UK variant and the Brazilian variant have now been discovered in Nebraska. Both variants appear to be more infectious and more resistant against one of the best treatments against COVID-19, the convalescent plasma treatment. Furthermore, the CDC indicates that we are starting to see a resurgence in cases in 15 States with another 17 States plateauing which indicates they are on the verge of going back up as States continue to rollback restrictions
TOTAL POSITIVE: 46-Students, 61-Parent(s)/Family Members, 31-Staff
THIS WEEK POSITIVE: 0-Students, 0-Parent(s)/Family Members, 0-Staff CURRENT QUARANTINE: 0
Updates from last week: One student who tested last week and was awaiting results over the weekend did come back negative for Coronavirus. For this week we have zero positive cases to report for the fourth week in a row.
Some changes in protocol moving forward, students who are outside at recess are not required to wear masks if they can maintain social distancing and we are no longer going to take temperatures as students enter the building. The decision to not take temperatures is based off of a recent study conducted by Natalie Lambert, PhD at the University of Indiana, she found fewer than 5% of people infected with COVID have a fever while contagious. After surveying roughly 4,000 people who have experienced COVID-19 symptoms, Lambert found that less than eight percent (7.7 percent) of survey respondents reported having a fever within the first ten days of getting sick. When factoring in the 40% of people who are asymptomatic, the survey results suggest that only 4.6% of people infected with COVID-19 are likely to have a fever while contagious. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) determined that people are usually most contagious within the first ten days of contracting COVID-19. Lambert's research shows that people are more likely to feel fatigued (14.44 percent), have a cough (10.65 percent) or headache (9.48 percent), experience shortness of breath (8.73 percent) or have a changed sense of taste (7.71 percent), rather than have a fever. Masks will still be required in all classrooms and upon entering the school as we have been advised that the DHM still requires quarantining of all students and staff who are not wearing masks if one person in that classroom becomes positive and we do not want to quarantine entire classrooms. One of our goals since the beginning of this pandemic is to keep our school open and educate students in person and so it is important that we continue with protocols that will allow us to meet that goal. I think you will find these are small changes that will not affect the overall safety of our students and as a school we will evaluate weekly and reserve the right to implement more stringent protocols should it be warranted. #WildcatPride