Piedmont Unified’s latest COVID-19 case report shows the virus continues to sideline students and some staff, but it’s not the only illness hitting schools. Today The San Francisco Chronicle reported on how COVID, the flu, and other bugs are causing Bay Area students to miss a lot of school:
All told, in both San Francisco and Oakland school districts, nearly 10% of students on average have been absent each day during that same period, up from under 6% before the pandemic.
Parents and public school staff have been grappling with the impact and onslaught of illness, with students and adults not only getting COVID, but then the flu and the common respiratory virus known as RSV.
“But those are not the only games in town,” said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, UCSF professor of medicine and an infectious disease specialist.
There is also the common colds, rhinovirus, gastroenteritis, Group A strep throat and the list goes on, he said.
‘It’s like a petri dish in here’: COVID, flu and other viruses are causing Bay Area students to miss tons of school“, Dec. 13, SF Chronicle
According to the Chronicle’s reporting, “the Santa Clara County health department said that the percentage of emergency department visits for influenza-like illness is three times higher this year than it was during the 2019-2020 flu season, before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.”