With the school year ending and prom night season coming, the Department of Public Health has recommended moving proms from indoors to outdoors for safety. Lockdowns kept proms from happening during the earlier two academic years, and it will be challenging for schools to put proms together during an epidemic period.
Director of Public Health Barbara Ferrer made some suggestions for schools in Los Angeles to navigate through proms safely, including one recommendation concerning outdoor proms.
Ferrer stated that she does not want to curtail extracurricular activities as she thinks that it is possible to do them with safety precautions in place. At the same time, Ferrer said that one possible move for a much safer prom night is to host it outdoors.
Ferrer also suggested testing before this event if it is hosted indoors, as Los Angeles County schools already have a broad supply of coronavirus tests.
Ferrer stated that there are more than enough supplies for coronavirus testing at schools. It means that people at schools would not lack testing kits. It would let them ask the people who come to the extracurricular activities, whether they would be indoors with many close contacts, for the tests before gathering.
There has been a 25% increase in the COVID-19 case count over the last week. On May 05, 2022, the count went above 3,000 in a first such instance after February 19 this year.
Many coronavirus outbreaks have affected schools in LA County as well. As many as 13 class coronavirus outbreaks occurred over the last seven days. It is unfortunate that almost all the outbreaks occurred among elementary school students. Ferrer associated the situation with the transmission of the so-called BA.2 coronavirus strain.
Even with coronavirus cases going up, Ferrer stated that she feels school events could happen and that too safely.
At the same time, Ferrer urged caution, given the chance of sickness due to coronavirus. Ferrer said that she wants everybody to enjoy the extracurricular activities and recommended doing those activities without breaching safety precautions.
