Lauryn Chavez | sports editor
After the temporary closure of NEISD schools during the cold front, COVID cases on-campus have been decreasing.
“There has been a decrease over the last week or two really since the cold spell,” principal Gary Comalander said. “There’s definitely been a decrease in the number of students reporting to us that they have tested positive, and in the city, and in Bexar County there’s been a decrease.”
The average number of COVID cases before the decrease was about 1-2 cases reported daily.
“Mostly virtual, maybe one out of every five was a student on campus,” Comalander said. “The majority were students that are virtual or have been virtual since Christmas.”
Most COVID cases are not coming from in-person students, but it is still in question if events like Prom and Graduation will happen without compromise.
“That’s what we’re starting to discuss what we’re going to be able to do, there’s still lots of rules in place for sites as far as how many you can have capacity wise in a building,” Comalander said. “None of that has changed in the city yet, but it is in discussion so that’s what we’re kind of waiting on is to see: will they open up a building to have 50%? 75%? or full capacity because right now everything’s still at 25% capacity.”
Despite the decrease in COVID cases, the district still requires students to continue to follow social distancing and mask guidelines.
“I think that’s a big reason why things are improving is people keeping some social distance, and wearing their masks,” Comalander said. “You know we had uptake in cases after the holidays which, you don’t know for sure, but you know lots of family members got together, and unfortunately coming from probably different cities. That’s a perfect opportunity for it to increase and it did. So January, February it seems like people have been staying at home and doing the things they need to do to try to get these cases down, but it’s not over. We have to continue with all the guidelines.”
All students may have to return back to school next year, but it’s still unknown if it will be mandated.
“I’d really love to be able to have everybody back.” Comalander said. “I think the in-person students enjoy being able to have that normalcy going through classes and being around others, but still following the guidelines of wearing a mask and social distancing you know while some have done well with online it’s you know it is a different experience not having that social interaction. So hopefully we’ll be in a good place where everybody can return back to school.”
