SACRAMENTO, Calif. —
At Sacramento City Unified School District, some 500 students and staff are now under a minimum 5-day quarantine after testing positive for COVID-19, officials confirmed Monday.
The news comes after the district said they sent 38,000 students and staff home with self-testing kits for the winter break. 20,000 were returned.
In a statement to ABC10, district officials say they are working with substitute teachers to meet student needs and are offering free on-site testing for all students and staff during school hours.
"Sacramento City Unified School District continues to offer testing and vaccination clinics to keep our schools open for in-person instruction,"
Quarantine can end after Day 5 if symptoms are not present or resolving and if they get a negative test, according to California Department of Public Health isolaton guidelines.
However, testing might be easier in theory than in practice depending on availability.
Before welcoming back students, Margarita Espinoza wanted get tested for COVID-19, but her search for an appointment was taking hours.
"There aren't any available within 13 miles," she said.
She stopped by Cal Expo to see if she could drive-in at Curative's test-site, but it was already closed.
"It's a bit frustrating if you're not feeling well, you want to make sure that if you, you know, expose people to something that you at least try to be tested to be safe," Espinoza said.
The reason behind the increased wait times is no secret. Sacramento County Public Health says demand is behind the increased waits and that there is no shortage of supply or labor.
"We do have, you know, plenty of tests in the county; it is a matter of demand increasing. If you want to get tested, there are places that you can go to get tested, you may have to wait in line however," said Samantha Mott, spokesperson for public health.
Mott says it's uncertain how long the demand will last, but as positive case rates climb, she says the county is not considering any restrictions as seen in 2020 and part of 2021.
For a full statement from the Sacramento City Unified School District on the positive COVID tests and quarantine, view below.
Before the winter break, the Sacramento City Unified School District received approximately 38,000 take home COVID-19 testing kits to distribute to students and staff to promote a safe return to school in January, 2022. Unfortunately the District did not receive enough kits for all students as we had expected, therefore distribution was focused on ensuring that younger populations ineligible to receive the vaccine were prioritized. Of the 38,000 test kits distributed in December, nearly 20,000 tests were recorded into the Primary Health website portal, and approximately 500 of them tested as positive through Sunday, January 2, 2022. The 500 students and staff who have tested positive are now in quarantine to prevent further spread in our schools.
Now that schools have reopened, Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD) is pleased to offer free COVID-19 screening testing for all students and staff at School Site Care Rooms (during school hours), and also at our central locations at Serna Center (12:00-3:30pm) and Albert Einstein Middle School (3:00-6:30pm). Surveillance testing also resumes starting Monday and every day this week. SCUSD thanks the California Department of Public Health for making this opportunity to test during the winter break possible.
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