CHEYENNE – Two weeks after the Laramie County School District 1 Board of Trustees voted to remove the mask mandate in schools, COVID-19 cases spiked for the first time in months.
Nearly 400 students tested positive between Jan. 24 and Feb. 4 in the district, as well as almost 100 faculty and staff members. There is no data on the number of quarantines or contact exposures outside of the reported cases by county health officials due to the board’s decision, as well.
Cheyenne-Laramie County Health Department officials said they did not advise the mask mandate removal, which was approved at the start of January, and still recommend face coverings as an added measure of COVID-19 prevention.
“We had over 1,000 kids test positive in January, and that’s birth to 18,” Cheyenne-Laramie County Health Department Director Kathy Emmons said last week. “Which is a phenomenal number of kids, much higher than we’ve ever had.”
The trend continued throughout the county as cases “went sky high,” but Emmons said based on the data and the jump in weekly cases in LCSD1, she believes the masking decision had an impact. The month before, there were rarely more than five cases reported a day, and now there are no fewer than 20.
Emmons and LCSD1 District Nurse Janet Farmer also shared concerns that the numbers might be higher, considering the access to at-home tests individuals now have.
“There’s nowhere to report those,” Emmons said. “So, I think we have to again assume that there’s a significant number of positive cases out there that we just don’t know about and won’t know about.”
Farmer said not having control or knowing who is testing also affects their ability to give them guidance.
If they test positive at home and do not reach out, there is no way to advise quarantines, isolation or contact trace within the community.
But she said there are pros and cons to every opportunity, and easy accessibility for some is important.
Both health officials recommended following up with a PCR test with the county.
“If they can, I would say yes,” Farmer said. “Because that just backs up the diagnosis, for one, and then you have that record in the system.”
Since the board’s decision went into place Jan. 24, Farmer said her job and that of the other nurses in the district has changed. They’re navigating the newer guidelines from not only the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but from the state health department. They are trying to help parents and community members decide when they need to quarantine and for how long. She said this does not mean less work, just a new kind.
The district also developed a new policy for students and faculty who test positive in regards to coming back to school property, which has impacted administrators. Individuals may come back after five days of quarantining at home, but must wear a mask for the remaining five days. Farmer said it is being monitored within the schools internally, but there is no official system for tracking.
“We’re still trusting parents to get that information to us,” she said.
She said she is, in some ways, grateful there is no contact tracing required at the moment, because she said it would not be possible with the removal of masks. The numbers are too high, and the jump in cases would leave nurses unable to attend to their other responsibilities.
“I do wish that we had been in masks through the end of the month,” she said. ”... I think it would have helped some,; I don’t know that it would have helped a lot. Because I don’t know that students or families are wearing masks outside of school.”
Jasmine Hall is the Wyoming Tribune Eagle’s education reporter. She can be reached by email at jhall@wyomingnews.com or by phone at 307-633-3167. Follow her on Twitter @jasminerhphotos and on Instagram @jhrose25.
