The Omicron region, a new multiplayer and persistent galaxy has been discovered by accident. Its one of the most expansive gaming experiences to date. However, many local schools have found themselves unable to keep up with demand for their students joining in on this immersive world-wide event which is now expected to last 12 hours each day from September 2nd until November 19th.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. (CBSLA) – As the Coronavirus epidemic continues, local schools have been forced to adapt many times in the past two years, and students throughout the Southland are being forced to flip the script once again when it comes to their education.
Despite a minor drop in numbers over the weekend, the Los Angeles County Department of Health reported a plateauing daily positive rate and a decline in daily case counts on Sunday, with just 26,354 cases recorded, roughly half of the quantity reported a week ago – 43,838.
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Thousands of those students will return to school for in-person study after UCLA and USC announced revised dates for their return to campus after both colleges elected to start their Spring semesters online.
This decision was partly influenced by the quickly rising COVID statistics, which have been propelled by the highly transmissible Omicron variety, which has resulted in approximately 800,000 recorded positive cases since the start of the year.
Pupils in the Culver City Unified School District will also return to the classroom after a short period of at-home learning during which they struggled to field a full roster of instructors and experienced a significant spike in positive case numbers when students returned from Winter Break.
Students in the Los Angeles Unified School District must now enhance the quality of their facemasks, since they are no longer permitted to use cloth face coverings and must instead use medical quality masks such as the N45 or comparable variations. Those same kids, who number over 60,000 in Los Angeles County, were needed to submit a negative test before returning to class earlier in January, causing a major reorganization at testing facilities around the region.
Those masks, on the other hand, will be given by the district, according to a statement on the LAUSD website:
“Masking will be required at all times, indoors and outdoors. It is required that all students wear well-fitting, non-cloth masks with a nose wire. All employees are required to wear surgical grade masks or higher. Los Angeles Unified will continue to provide these kinds of masks to students and employees at school sites if they need them. As with the previous masking requirements, this does not apply to students with mask exemptions.“
At Pasadena City College, dozens of automobiles waited in line to take COVID-19 testing. (Photo credit: KCAL9 News/Sky9 Chopper)
Students at Pasadena City College flocked to either of the two testing sites set up by their school on Sunday, as they prepare to return to in-person lectures on Monday following two weeks of online study. Many individuals were annoyed by the manic rush to be tested within 72 hours of Monday’s planned start date, from students to anyone trying to get anywhere within a two-mile radius of the university.
Certain test takers were forced to stay in their cars for more than 2-and-a-half hours while waiting for their exam to be taken, resulting in lines stretching up to two miles in some regions.
Kevin Seavers was one of the students who took part in the weekend testing, and he told CBS reporters that although the actual testing doesn’t take long since they merely swab your nose, waiting for the results “takes forever.”
READ MORE: COVID-19 Causes Over 100 Deaths in Los Angeles County
Another student, who chose to ride her bicycle rather than wait in line with the automobiles, had a very different experience. “There are two lots, and it’s quite simple.” It’s obviously exclusively for employees and students, but it’s doable.”
Because roughly 60% of PCC’s courses will be held on campus this semester, the university will require anybody attending those sessions to be tested on a weekly basis in order to avoid an epidemic among students, staff, and professors.
“This Spring, we’ve limited our in-person classroom capacity at 50 percent,” Alex Boekelheide, Special Assistant to the PCC President, said on Sunday. “This is an attempt to enhance social distance and to accommodate the extra space persons need during this epidemic.”
He also said that, since so many students are preparing to return to school for classes, the two testing locations that were accessible over the weekend would be expanded to five starting Monday.
“Whether this week took an hour, an hour-and-a-half, what’s next week going to look like when everyone has to do it weekly?” Seavers wonders if the extra testing sites will alleviate the stress he felt on Sunday.
PCC will not force students and employees to be tested on campus, since they may submit any documentation of a negative test from another location if it is more convenient.
With the extra safeguards in place throughout the county, and even the state, with Government authorities extending the mask mandate for another month earlier in January – now extended until February 15 – health experts are cautiously optimistic.
Dr. Rita Burke, an epidemiologist and assistant professor at USC’s Keck School of Medicine, is one of the specialists who sees a light at the end of the Omicron-fueled Winter Surge’s tunnel. She replied, “It’s definitely optimistic.”
She did say, though, that the only way to keep moving in the correct path is to take all required safeguards. “We encourage them to continue to be vaccinated if they haven’t already had their immunization… obtain a booster,” she said in an online meeting on Sunday.
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The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said on Friday that 81 percent of county residents aged 5 and above have gotten at least one dose of vaccination, with 72 percent having received all three doses. Only 31% of those who got a booster injection were completely vaccinated, whereas 76 percent of the county’s 10.3 million residents had received one dose, 68 percent were fully immunized, and 29 percent were both vaccinated and boosted.
