Virus forces Bloomington schools back to distance learning (due to Covid among bus drivers),

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Last edited Sat Jan 30, 2021, 01:08 AM - Edit history (2)

KSTP, 1/29/21

A large Minnesota school district has been forced to return to distance learning after an outbreak of COVID-19 among its transportation workers.

Bloomington Public Schools brought back preschoolers through second graders on Jan. 19, and had planned to bring back third to fifth graders on Monday.

But the district informed parents Thursday evening that the plan is on pause until Feb. 12.

Bloomington's retreat underscores the unique challenges of protecting bus drivers, many of whom are older and at higher risk of severe illness stemming from the virus. Drivers are often retirees working for supplemental income

short article, no more at link. But a good reminder that bus drivers are at high risk too. And essential.
https://kstp.com/minnesota-news/virus-forces-bloomington-minnesota-schools-back-to-distance-learning/5994771/?cat=12196

EDITED TO ADD:
Background for out-of-staters: This is shocking news, given that all of the news about Covid has been one of great improvement in the last 2 months in Minnesota. Daily new cases, 7 day moving average peaked at 7052 on November 20, and has fallen to 1068 currently (Jan 29), a drop of 85%. And still trending down. 7 day positivity is below 5% and also trending down. Hospitalizations and deaths are also way down from their peak values. And finally, even the vaccine news is positive ... the beginning of the rollout was slow but in the last few days has rapidly picked up.

Still, daily new cases at 1068 are higher than they were during the spring peak and the summer peak, surpassing anything that has occurred before October 1. Back during those times we were in a panic. Now it's like it's a nothing burger in too many minds.

And the new variants are spreading, though it's still a handful of cases in total. (The MN Dept of Health sequences 50 random Covid-positive samples a day IIRC to look for variants, so there are certainly many multiples more out there than have been found. We were the first state to find the Brazilian variant).