More than 65,000 Los Angeles students and employees test positive for COVID-19 as school resumes
CBSN
Thousands of students and staff members in the Los Angeles Unified School District are set to miss the first day of the spring semester on Tuesday as the COVID-19 Omicron variant continues to surge across the nation. The district announced that as of 4 p.m. on Monday, 65,630 students and staff members have tested positive for COVID-19 in the week before school.
Omicron has created the largest spike in cases yet since the pandemic began at the beginning of 2020. The stark increase in cases began at the beginning of December, and as of January 9, the nation has a daily average of more than 674,000 cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, making up more than 95% of all COVID-19 cases in the country. On January 9, Los Angeles County reported more than 43,500 new cases.
The school district had updated its guidelines for the return to school on Friday in light of the surge. All students and employees had to get tested for COVID-19, regardless of their vaccination status, between January 3 and January 10, and have to prove a negative result to go to school.
