Data Shows Malibu Public Schools Have Had Positive COVID Cases in the Last 14 Days

0
380
SMMUSD's COVID dashboard

According to a school district live-updated COVID dashboard, Malibu Middle School/High School and Malibu Elementary campuses have each experienced at least one positive COVID case within the last 14 days. Though further information on the individuals who experienced positive results was not immediately available, schools are offering distance learning only and students have not been on campus, save for small groups of special education and English-learner students and some students attending outdoor athletic conditioning.

The dashboard tracks the number of individuals who have been at a Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD) site in the last 14 days and currently are in isolation, quarantined or have had a positive test. 

It is possible for one person to be counted in multiple columns, for example, if they tested positive and then were in isolation, Gail Pinsker, and SMMUSD representative said. Pinsker defined “isolation” as “someone who is symptomatic,” explaining that some who are symptomatic choose not to get tested but do stay in isolation for 10 days. The term “quarantine,” according to Pinsker, signifies “someone who may have been exposed or traveled, but who is not symptomatic.”

The dashboard shows that Malibu Elementary has had one individual test positive in the past 14 days and one person in isolation. Malibu Middle School and High School as a group have five individuals quarantined, have had two negative tests and four people in isolation. 

Webster Elementary has one person quarantined, but no positive tests. 

The total number of positive tests within the last two weeks within SMMUSD as a whole—across more than 15 campuses in both Malibu and Santa Monica—is 14 positive COVID tests. 

These statistics apply only to staff. Pinsker said that SMMUSD would be adding a separate section tracking student COVID totals when more students were on campus. 

The chart is updated by SMMUSD nursing staff as numbers change; the chart does not show cumulative totals since the beginning of the pandemic, only the past two weeks. 

“Individuals will be counted until they are cleared by the school nurse in accordance with LA County Dept. of Public Health (LACDPH) guidelines,” a note attached to the chart says. 

SMMUSD wrote as of Friday, Jan. 15, that it would be releasing a graph next week (Jan. 18-22) that would show COVID trends within the district.