NOLA-PS Provides Update on COVID-19 Impact in Schools: Feb. 14-18

(New Orleans – February 21, 2022) - NOLA Public Schools (NOLA-PS) is proud to report our COVID-19 positivity rate is below 1%. Our schools, with the assistance of health partners, administered 19,476 COVID-19 tests last week, yielding a positive test rate of 0.85%, among its students and staff. That's down more than a half percent from last week's testing data, showing our schools' COVID safety measures are working to keep our students and staff safe within our school buildings. We'd like to thank our community of schools for their continued hard work in helping to keep the virus at bay.

To keep this trend moving in the right direction, NOLA-PS Superintendent Dr. Henderson Lewis, Jr. is reminding school leaders to continue to work on gathering the vaccination status of students 5 and older. Vaccinations remain the best tool to keep COVID-19 from disrupting our students' education.

"As we head into the Mardi Gras break, we remind our families vaccines remain the best way to protect our children from the virus," Dr. Lewis said. "We urge our families to take appropriate health measures as recommended by the CDC and stay safe and healthy throughout this carnival season."

In addition, we are urging all students and staff to get tested before they return from Mardi break. Families can connect directly with their school regarding testing resources.

Working with its medical advisors, NOLA-PS continues to assess its safety guidelines based on the information provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH). These updates can be viewed here.

For information on vaccination opportunities, please contact your school or visit www.nolapublicschools.com/vaccinations or www.ready.nola.gov for details on testing and vaccination sites.

This week's COVID Tracker provides an update for the week of Feb. 14-18. Please note, due to Mardi break, there will not be a COVID-19 update until Monday, March 7.

The District is currently tracking 155 total cases of COVID-19 (13 staff; 142 students) among 39 schools in our school community, resulting in 424 individuals in quarantine. From Feb. 14-18, NOLA-PS completed 19,476 COVID-19 tests with a positive test rate of 0.85 percent.

As we've been doing since the start of the pandemic, NOLA-PS will continue to monitor the data that measure the impact of COVID-19. We are working with our schools to ensure the data are as accurate as possible, although schools' testing schedule and our reporting schedule may differ week-to-week, accounting for some degree of inconsistency. Quarantine numbers especially may fluctuate due to the increasing number of vaccinated students and differences in total close contacts established through contact tracing.

We acknowledge that gathering this information is above and beyond the daily duties of a school to support their students, and at the District we stand ready to assist them to help fulfill this need for information.

The data are valuable in that they provide a global snapshot of COVID-19's impact that can help schools, teachers, staff, parents, and students make the best choices for their classes, themselves, and their loved ones.

Our goal continues to be to preserve in-person learning, safely and effectively. The American Academy of Pediatrics, the CDC, the LDH, and the New Orleans Health Department have analyzed the data, and all agree the best place for children to be is in the classroom. The benefits include developing social and emotional skills, access to healthy meals and activities, and access to mental health support that cannot be offered through virtual learning.

With that in mind, NOLA-PS will continue to publicly share each week the number of confirmed cases and precautionary quarantines that our schools self-report. We will also continue to remain in close contact with the LDH and our health advisers as we navigate the 2021-2022 school year.

NOLA-PS' COVID-19 Case Tracker provides cumulative data of self-reported cases in our public schools since this reporting began on Sept. 21, 2020. Last school year's data is archived and available for viewing on our website.

The NOLA-PS COVID-19 Case Tracker reports the number of active and cumulative positive cases of COVID-19 by school site, the number of quarantined individuals and the number of positive cases of COVID-19 reported over time for the district and by school site.

The case numbers above reflect data the District has received from schools. In some cases, there may be a lag time in reporting due to the timeframe in which families notify their schools regarding test results among students.

All schools are required to report positive cases to the LDH and the District. The District is continuing to stay on top of updates, collaborate with state and local agencies, and work closely with our school leaders, task force, and community stakeholders to ensure a safe 2021-2022 school year.

To learn more about our quarantine and isolation process for the 2021-2022 school year, please refer to NOLA-PS' COVID Guidance for the details.

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About NOLA Public Schools: NOLA Public Schools is the public school district for Orleans Parish. It includes the district's administration and elected school board, known as the Orleans Parish School Board. NOLA Public Schools currently oversees 76 public schools and is led by Superintendent Dr. Henderson Lewis, Jr.

For more information, visit www.nolapublicschools.com. For updates, follow NOLA Public Schools on Facebook @NOLAPublicSchools, Instagram @nolaps and Twitter @NOLAPSchools.