Nearly 100 high schoolers test positive for COVID after going to prom in California
Nearly 100 high schoolers have tested positive for COVID-19 after going to prom in California, school officials told news outlets.
At least 600 students from San Mateo High School danced the night away at prom at San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum on April 9, CBS SF reported.
Masks were strongly recommended, but many students didn’t keep their masks on the entire time, school officials told the news outlet.
As of Thursday, April 21, at least 90 students had tested positive for COVID-19 after going to the prom, district Superintendent Kevin Skelly told KTVU.
“The District cares deeply about the health and safety of members of our community and creating opportunities for students to enjoy and benefit from student activities such as performing arts, athletics, and senior rites of passage,” Skelly told KTVU in a statement.
The students had mild cases of COVID-19, Skelly told ABC 7. Some students said the opportunity to go to prom outweighed getting sick.
“Overall, I think it was worth it,” student Parker Del Balso, who tested positive for COVID-19 but mainly had a sore throat, told ABC 7. “It was a great, fun time.”
The district will require masks for all attendees at indoor events moving forward, including a prom at Hillsdale High School on Saturday, April 23, CBS SF reported.
Some parents are concerned about the outbreak, NBC Bay Area reported. They hope other California high schools will learn from what happened in San Mateo and have stricter guidelines.
San Mateo school officials, however, were following all state guidelines properly, according to the news outlet.
“The state’s guidance right now for K-12 is masks are strongly recommended but not required, so the same will go for our proms,” Jennifer Maddox of the San Jose Unified School District told NBC Bay Area.
The outbreak isn’t the first among California students in recent weeks.
More than 50 students from two Marin County schools also tested positive for the virus after returning from a trip to Washington, D.C., McClatchy News previously reported.
Students used at-home kits to test for COVID-19 before planning to return to classes on Monday, April 11. Most of the students were vaccinated against the coronavirus and had mild or no symptoms.
Some places across the country are beginning to see a spike in COVID-19 cases.
The BA.2 subvariant, also known as “stealth omicron,” has become dominant in the U.S. It makes up about 74% of the country’s recent COVID-19 infections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Still, most of the country is considered to have a low or medium COVID-19 Community Level, the CDC reported. Less than 1% of the country lives in a high infection area.
This story was originally published April 22, 2022 at 12:36 PM with the headline "Nearly 100 high schoolers test positive for COVID after going to prom in California."