LAUSD medical director touts school district's COVID guidelines ahead of August 16 return to campus
LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- With the new school year quickly approaching, a Los Angeles Unified School District campus in Boyle Heights opened its doors to medical professionals and parents on Monday to demonstrate the steps that are being taken to ensure students and staff will remain safe amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
LAUSD students were allowed back on campus on a limited basis in April. On August 16, students will be welcomed back to school districtwide. Before they step on campus each morning, they will be checked to ensure that they are feeling well and don't have a high temperature.
Masking and social distancing will still be practiced at all LAUSD schools, officials said.
Members of the district's medical team toured Euclid Avenue Elementary School on Monday morning, to see how preparations were proceeding.
In an interview with ABC7, the district's medical director told ABC7 that everything is being done to assure the safety of students, teachers and staff amid concerns over the delta variant.
LA averaging more than 2,300 cases of COVID-19 per day
"The biggest thing I'm telling parents is that rates of in-school transmission can remain low if mitigation measures are in place," said Dr. Smita Malhotra. "And that is what we have -- we have upgraded air-filtration systems, we've increased our custodial staff. We have a robust testing program, and our required masking of all students and staff that enter this campus."
The district will also be making COVID-19 vaccination shots available to students who are 12 years old and older.
