At least 50 California eighth-graders positive for COVID after spring field trip to DC

An annual spring break field trip was restarted after a two-year pause during the pandemic — and dozens of California eighth-graders came home with COVID-19, health officials told news outlets.

More than 50 students from two Marin County schools tested positive for COVID-19 after returning from a trip to Washington, D.C., the Marin Independent Journal reported.

The group of 112 students returned Sunday, April 10, according to KTVU.

Students used at-home kits to test for COVID-19 before planning to return to classes on Monday, April 11, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

About 45% of the students on the trip had been infected with COVID-19.

“We call that the attack rate,” Dr. Matthew Willis of Marin Health & Human Services told KTVU. “That’s a relatively high attack rate.”

Most of the students have been vaccinated against the coronavirus and are having mild or no symptoms, KGO reported. About 90% of the eighth-graders have been fully vaccinated, and half have received a booster shot, according to the Marin Independent Journal.

The high number of cases among students on the trip has not spread to other classrooms. County health officials told KGO there has been no trace of outbreaks.

Washington, D.C., has seen an uptick in COVID-19 infections in recent weeks. Cases increased 73% in two weeks in the city, according to CNBC.

Several high-profile politicians recently tested positive for COVID-19, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The spike in COVID-19 cases in Washington, D.C., comes as a highly contagious subvariant of the virus spreads across the country.

The BA.2 subvariant, also known as “stealth omicron,” has become dominant in the U.S. It makes up nearly 86% of the country’s recent COVID-19 infections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Still, most of the country is considered to have a low or medium COVID-19 Community Level, the CDC reported. Less than 1% of the country lives in a high infection area.

This story was originally published April 14, 2022 at 11:44 AM with the headline "At least 50 California eighth-graders positive for COVID after spring field trip to DC."