Story at a glance
- More than 65,000 Los Angeles Unified School District students and staff tested positive for COVID-19 ahead of Tuesday’s return to classes after winter break.
- LAUSD officials required that all students and staff show proof of a negative COVID-19 test before entering school buildings.
- The new rule comes amid a surge in COVID-19 cases stemming from the omicron variant.
Thousands of Los Angeles public school students were absent Tuesday, the first day of classes after winter break and amid a record new spike in COVID-19 cases.
Prior to the start of the spring semester, Los Angeles Unified School District officials announced that all students and school staff must show a negative COVID-19 test result before setting foot back in a classroom.
On Tuesday, more than 65,000 students and staffers tested positive for the virus barring them from entering school grounds, according to LAUSD officials
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Many of the students that did make it to school were forced to wait in long lines ahead of class as school staff checked for proof of a negative COVID-19 test.
The LAUSD is the second largest public school system in the country with more than 640,000 students. As of late Tuesday, school district officials reported a 16.9 percent COVID-19 positivity rate among students and a 14.9 percent positivity rate among staffers.
Students and school employees will be subject to weekly COVID-19 testing as part of the school district’s virus mitigation efforts. Masks will be required for all adults and children in school buildings as well.
The Los Angeles County area hit 2 million COVID-19 cases earlier this week, with officials reporting 43,582 new cases of the virus on Monday alone.
Los Angeles health officials said the recent surge in new cases is also driving up the rate of hospitalizations with the city reporting 3,400 COVID-19 postive patients in L.A. County hospitals, the highest level since Feb. 11 of last year.
While most students in Los Angeles attended classes in person last year, the county experienced one of the longest system-wide shutdowns. Officials later tried to impose a vaccine mandate for students aged 12 and older, but the policy was pushed back for the fall of 2022.
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