Pasadena Unified Reports 16 New Cases of COVID-19 Among Students, Staff Since Friday, Number of Those Quarantined Unchanged

[Editor’s Note: This story originally contained an error. It said there was one infection reported at Field Elementary. That is not correct. It should have said McKinley Elementary. We apologize for the mistake.]

Pasadena Unified reported late Tuesday that an additional eight students and eight staff members have been diagnosed as infected with COVID-19 since last Friday.

The total number of students and staff placed under quarantine remains at last Friday’s level 344.

The new student infections occurred across both elementary and secondary schools.

There were an additional two at Willard Elementary, one at Don Benito, one at John Muir High School, two at Marshall Fundamental, one at Pasadena High School and one at Rose City High.

Among staff, one new infection was reported at McKinley Elementary, one at Hamilton Elementary, one at Eliot Arts, one at Rose City High, two at Sierra Madre Middle School, and two at the Early Childhood Center at Willard School.

The School Board will vote on Thursday to mandate all students 12 and older be required to show proof of vaccination or submit to weekly testing with the informed consent of parents.

The district also plans to bring an additional 25 health care professionals on board. The district will have three-person teams of three at each elementary school that will rotate to secondary sites every Monday.

The district will soon take steps to implement a state health order one month before it is due to go into effect.

Beginning Sept. 1 all school staff will also be required to show proof of vaccination or submit to weekly testing.

School districts must be in full compliance with the order by Oct. 15, a full two months after schools have opened.

McDonald also announced that PUSD is preparing to bring on board 25 additional health professionals to have a team of three on each elementary site who will rotate to the secondary sites each Monday.

He also said that the District is editing the notification letters sent to parents whose children should quarantine because some parents found them to be unclear.

“Among the most critical challenges of COVID-19 is anticipating and quickly responding to new developments that occur almost every day,” McDonald said in an Aug. 22 email.