CAMDEN COUNTY, Ga. — Camden County schools announced Monday that students, staff and visitors will be required to wear a mask in all schools, offices and buildings at the start of the 2021 school year.
School officials are also calling for parents to prescreen all students saying children with a temperature of 100 degrees or higher must stay home and student showing COVID systems will be sent home.
Camden school leaders sent out the following news release:
When we began planning for the new school year, we could not have accurately predicted the swift and devastating impact the Delta variant of the COVID-19 virus would have on our county. In March of 2021, the community transmission rate, which reflects the number of COVID positive cases per 100,000 residents, was averaging 72. On Thursday, July 22nd, the community transmission rate was 788, a 994% increase since the spring. In meetings with Camden County Emergency Management Agency, the Department of Public Health and representatives from Southeast Georgia Health System, we have learned the cases of COVID-19 and resulting hospitalizations are higher in Camden now than they were in their peak times in the summer and winter of 2020. This news may be sobering but it is the reality that we are facing in Camden. We believe we are beginning a great new school year, but we are once again faced with challenges we must overcome to serve our students and to support each other. We have proven many times that we are “Camden Strong” and we must now unify our efforts to battle our common enemy of COVID-19. As a school system, we are going to do everything in our power to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 in our community and prepare our schools to safely reopen on August 2nd. All students are scheduled to return under a traditional, face-to-face model in our school buildings. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we are implementing additional measures to provide a safe learning environment for our students and staff. The Camden County School System will continue to consider guidance from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH), and Georgia Department of Education (GaDOE) in making all decisions. Decisions regarding our reopening plans are subject to change based on current guidance of these agencies and the Office of the Governor. The information below summarizes the steps we are taking to safely open school as scheduled.