New data shows the omicron variant wave in North Texas may be peaking right now.
This comes as some school districts sidelined by omicron’s rapid rise plan to reopen this week after cancellations amid record cases and staffing shortages.
Students and staff in Grapevine-Colleyville ISD and Weatherford ISD will return to class Monday after closing parts of last week after an increase in Covid-19 cases.
In Collin County, Princeton ISD will remain closed until Wednesday.
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Steven Poole is the executive director at the United Educators Association which represents everyone from teachers and nurses to bus drivers at schools in North Texas.
“Teachers are doing great work but here we are again - a bigger wave than we were even last year,” Poole said Sunday. “Hopefully the wave will peak soon because we can’t continue on the way we have been doing.”
Dr. Steve Miff, CEO of Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation, says data PCCI is monitoring indicates the omicron variant may have reached its peak here.
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“Psychologically it helps, because it would indicate that hopefully we’ve seen the worst of Omicron peak,” Miff said.
Miff added it will likely take another six weeks for case counts to recede from that peak and to what he described as a manageable level for healthcare providers.
Poole says, long term, he’s encouraged by the data but has more immediate concerns for schools before then.
“We don’t have six weeks left in us to be able to manage the way we have been managing the last three weeks.”
So as some school districts return this week, it is possible we haven’t seen the last of omicron fueled class cancellations just yet.
