TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — To help kids stay in school, school districts are getting priority for COVID test kits from Pima County—and the Federal government. KGUN9 On Your Side has more on test efforts—and what Pima County’s Chief Medical officer says is the best way to prepare for new COVID variants
The CDC regards anything over 100 COVID cases per hundred thousand as high.
Pima County’s Chief Medical Officer, says the County’s infection rate is still terribly high with about 17 thousand cases per hundred thousand population.
Doctor Francisco Garcia is encouraged by Pima County’s high vaccination rate of almost 70 percent but says the 30 percent unvaccinated still present a high risk of spread.
Garcia says schools have always had a high priority for Pima County’s supply of quick-result COVID tests. He says now, as the Federal Government is mailing out COVID tests, the Feds are also sending tests to school districts.
“The first two school districts that are scheduled to receive test resources from the Federal government, are Sunnyside and Tucson Unified School Districts, appropriately and there should be more tests that are coming to them.”
Doctor Garcia says despite high case counts, he thinks Omicron cases may be topping out and about to decline—though overloaded hospitals could be slammed with a wave of new patients as people just starting to get sick, get sicker over the next few days.
With a new version of Omicron identified, he understands people may feel fighting the virus is futile. He says it’s not and the best way to fight back is to vaccinate so the virus is less likely to grow and spread from you.
“It is clear that if you don't have a susceptible population, a new variant doesn't take hold in a community unless you have a susceptible population.”
