More than one hundred students were quarantined after the first week of the new curriculum in the Arkansas school district.
According to KARK TV station, as of two days ago, 168 students and 3 faculty and staff in Marion School District are in isolation. Marion School District Communications Director Andy Weld said on Saturday that seven of the students and three faculty and staff had tested positive for the coronavirus.
The school year in Eastern Arkansas begins on July 26, and its “hybrid calendar” provides students, faculty and staff with a two-week fall vacation after the first nine weeks.
Due to positive cases and possible exposure to Covid-19, 168 students and 3 teachers were quarantined after the first week of school in Marion, Arkansas.
The delta variant is about to break out, and unvaccinated children will fill up hospitals.
— TheSadTruth💙 (@ReportsDaNews) August 2, 2021
The quarantine began after the first week, and there have been several reports of positive tests for the virus.
Weld said that 10 students and 15 staff were able to avoid isolation because they were vaccinated. He added that the school district now provides a $200 stipend to staff who have COVID-19 vaccination documents.
On August 4, the region will host a community vaccination clinic, followed by an employee vaccination clinic on August 12, as it continues to drive demand for vaccinations among county residents in one of the least vaccinated states in the country.
On Sunday, the Arkansas Department of Health reported 1,984 new cases and 948 new active cases, bringing the total number of cases to 388,436 and the total number of active cases to 19,738.
The state’s Minister of Health, Dr. José Romero, expressed his concerns about the academic year, and he told CNN, “We have seen daycares closed, we have seen summer camps closed, all of this makes me believe that in an environment without strict mitigation measures, it will spread very, very quickly in our schools.”
Danyelle McNeill, Public Information Officer, Arkansas Department of Health Told before Weekly newspaper It “worked closely with the Arkansas Department of Education to provide schools and districts with advice on how to minimize the spread of COVID-19 in the school environment and prepare for an outbreak in the school.”
The United States provides vaccines for children over 12 years of age. The Arkansas Health Improvement Center (ACHI) recommends that all eligible children get vaccinated before the start of the school year.
ACHI President and CEO Joe Thompson wrote in a column: “If parents delay vaccinating their children, students will become unnecessarily infected with the virus at the beginning of school.”
“Getting students back into the classroom is a worthy goal,” Thompson added, “but due to the highly contagious Delta variant and Arkansas’ low vaccination rate, there is a new surge of COVID-19 in Arkansas, attending school and Parents of children in college need to act now to ensure that their children are protected.”
Weekly newspaper The Marion School District was contacted for further comments, but no response was received before publication.
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