Hoover schools to reinstitute indoor mask requirement during school day

Due to the latest surge in the COVID-19 disease, the Hoover school system on Thursday, Jan. 13, is reinstituting its requirement that students, employees and visitors in Hoover public schools wear face coverings while inside school buildings and buses.

The latest data put together by school officials showed that 454 students, or 3.4% of all students in the system, tested positive for the disease in the last seven-day reporting period, according to a statement on the school system’s website.

The school system’s face covering matrix calls for face coverings to be required inside buildings unless the percentage of students testing positive is 1% or below for two weeks. Face coverings will become optional again in buildings once that happens, the statement said.

“This face covering rule applies to all activities inside school buildings except for after-hours athletic events,” the statement said. “Athletic activities after school hours will follow the Alabama High School Athletic Association COVID-19 guidelines. These guidelines parallel the Alabama Department of Public Health guidelines, which currently state that face coverings are strongly recommended but not required.”

Some parents have complained that school officials are not conducting contract tracing for all students anymore.

The statement on the school system’s website said contact tracing was never intended to be a function of the school district. However, when the Hoover school system learned that agencies responsible for contact tracing were not able to perform the duty, school officials assumed the responsibility as a courtesy to students and parents, the statement said.

Parents of elementary school students will continue to receive a letter informing them if someone in their child’s classroom has tested positive for COVID-19, and parents of bus riders also will continue to receive a letter when a student on their child’s bus tests positive, the statement said.

However, at the high school level, while school nurses have conducted contact tracing in the past and informed parents when their child has had close contact with someone testing positive, “this practice has become impossible” with the latest surge, the statement said.

“When students rotate classes throughout the day, the number of potential close contacts becomes unmanageable,” the statement said. “Until further notice, parents of middle and high school students should assume their child has the potential of being exposed and check their child daily for any possible symptoms.”

Also, in general, school officials are asking parents to please check their children daily for symptoms and keep children home who are showing symptoms of COVID-19 or other transmittable diseases.

COVID-19 symptoms include fever or chills, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fatigue, muscle or body aches, headache, new loss of taste or smell, sore throat, congestion or runny nose, nausea or vomiting and diarrhea.

UAB Hospital on Tuesday, Jan. 11, shared that the number of COVID-19 patients in the hospital there had surged to 222, up from 42 on Dec. 14 and 145 on Jan. 4. The Jan. 11 number includes 193 patients w/ active COVID-19 infection and 29 who were admitted w/ COVID and are no longer deemed infectious but still need hospital care, the hospital said.