TYLER, Texas — Four more East Texas school districts have closed their doors temporarily as COVID-19 cases rise to uncontrollable levels among their students and faculty.
On Thursday, Cross Roads, Trinity, West Sabine and Zavalla school districts have joined the more than 20 school districts that are closing through Labor Day.
This move, districts say, will give time for students and staff time to recover and for the districts to deep clean campuses.
In August, UT Health reported their providers saw 724 patients who were 20 years old or younger at local clinics. Of those, 293 tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the positivity rate to 40%.
Division Chief Medical Officer for UT Health East Texas Dr. Tom Cummins says the rise in cases he’s seeing is concerning.
“We're seeing far more children being impacted this way than we did in the first couple waves," Cummins said. "Across the community and across our clinics, we're seeing large numbers of children that are testing positive, ranging in ages from a few months to teenage years with a really heavy focus in sort of preteen and in early teen years."
While many parents oppose mask-wearing in schools, Cummins believes they're the best sort of protection to keeping children safe in school.
“Have your child wear a mask, encourage your school to allow masking mandates, to work with schools to follow the CDC protocols to keep their children as safe as possible,” Cummins said.
Lastly, Cummins advises parents to get vaccinated to limit the spread. He also discourages standing in large crowds without a mask.
“Please start the vaccination process," Cummins said. "Now it's widely available, safe, very effective. In the meantime, wear your mask, mask up at school, mask up at the grocery store, mask up at work, and avoid those large crowds."
As much as Cummins loves the start of football season in East Texas, he still warns that these games could become superspreader events.
"Being outdoors is not a free pass to say that you're not going to catch COVID," Cummins said. "If you got 10,000 people in the bleachers, all coughing, yelling and screaming, somebody's gonna get sick.”
Find our links with the latest school closures and vaccination rates across East Texas.