Marin Schools To Enact New Restrictions Amid Omicron Surge

MARIN COUNTY, CA — Even one of the nation’s most vaccinated communities isn’t completely impervious to the impact of omicron.

Marin schools will enact new restrictions, part of a 32-point plan that aims to keep classrooms open for in-person instruction amid the hyper-contagious variant case surge, the county’s top health official said Tuesday.

Enhanced mask-wearing requirements, more testing, and prohibiting spectators from attending indoor sports events and schools from holding assemblies of 50 or more students (indoor or outdoor), were among the strategies for containing omicron Marin Health Officer Dr. Matt Willis unveiled in a pandemic update before the county’s Board of Supervisors.

Omicron has emerged as the region’s dominant variant, accounting for the bulk of a case explosion. The county experienced a single-day record 412 cases Dec. 28, more than double its previous single-day record of 172 in January of last year, Willis said.

And although omicron appears to be less virulent than previous variants, Willis acknowledged that the raw number of cases that could be seen in the next month remains a concern.

“Omicron is so highly infectious that any one individual in a setting like that may not recognize they’re infected, can infect a large number of others,” Willis said.

“It’s sort of an obvious strategy to reduce the burden of the total number of cases that might emerge from a large gathering if everyone is indoors at the same time when everyone is yelling that goes along with a sporting event.”

A draft of the guidelines was released Tuesday. This is the third draft.

“No. 1 is to keep Marin’s schools open,” Willis said of Marin's top priority.

Marin’s Office of Education distributed some 96,000 test kits to district students and staff including instructions for how to use them before students left for winter break, and more test kits are on the way.

Marin schools will also update quarantine protocol, with the county aligning with new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines that allow those who test positive but are asymptomatic to test out of quarantine after five days.

“As long as that test is negative they can stay in the classroom,” Willis said.

New isolation and quarantine CDC guidance modified by the Department of Public Health.