As the new year officially takes off, murmurs circulate among the community about the new strain of COVID spreading across the country. A new COVID outbreak could concern staff and students.
According to the World Health Organization, “the number of new cases increased by 4% during the 28-day period of Dec. 11, 2023 to Jan. 7, 2024 as compared to the previous 28-day period, with over 1.1 million new cases. During the period from Dec. 11, 2023 to Jan 7, 2024, COVID-19 new hospitalizations and admissions to an intensive care unit (ICU) both recorded an overall increase of 40% and 13% with over 173,000 and 1,900 admissions, respectively.”
Despite these rising concerns across the country, there have only been a few new cases of COVID at BHS. Students with the new strain have only reported mild symptoms.
“It’s basically just a bad cold,” school nurse Lisa Krings said. “There hasn’t been a significant increase in students with COVID.”
Art teacher Angela Breunig recently missed some school due to getting COVID, but does not fear this new outbreak of COVID.
“I have not been too worried,” Breunig said. “I had my first bout of COVID in Sep. 2022. This recent bout has been my second. I have faith that my body is healthy enough to fight it.”
A recent poll showed that 12 students that responded reported cold-like symptoms with COVID; eight of these students did not have other symptoms with the strain of COVID they were sick with.
“When I had COVID I really had no sense of smell or taste and a very bad migraine at the start,” senior Karson Kaufman said. “I had a fever of over 100 degrees.”
Kaufman was in eighth grade when the lockdown happened; he had participated in a fundraiser for a trip they were supposed to take.
“We had a very special trip. It was going to be to Catalina Islands, it was usually a
seventh and eighth grade type of trip,” Kaufman said. “I had raised over $1,000 worth of pizza sales, I sold a total of over 195 pizzas in order to make that money for the trip. COVID completely ruined it all and I never got to go. It was really depressing because I was looking forward to such a cool experience.”
Along with the canceled trip, many students had to spend time away from their families during holidays due to family members being sick. With the lockdown having such drastic effects, it makes sense that people are wary of another one; however, another lockdown is unlikely to happen with the small amount of cases at BHS.
“Just eat healthy, stay home when you’re sick, and cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze,” Krings said.
