Oishei Children's Hospital pediatrician and Buffalo School Board medical advisor Dr. Dennis Kuo gave school officials a COVID-19 update during Wednesday evening's regular meeting.
He said there are cases of the virus in the schools, but they aren't in-school transmissions. Rather, they're coming from the community.
"Our adult hospitalizations are very high, but they are actually below last year's peak. Right now, they are sitting about 340-350," Kuo said. "Last year, they were up in the 400 range. My belief is that even though we've had more cases this year, this reflects the following: more awareness, better treatments and we're vaccinated."
The overwhelming mass of Buffalo Public school kids are going to class in the buildings every day. That's as opposed to last year, when everything was virtual and the region's broadband problems became very apparent.
"We also saw a real big surge in cases starting at the exact same time this year, as the spike that we had last year," Kuo said. "And I really think that this is seasonal, people driving themselves indoors due to cold weather, and this is probably a seasonal thing that we are going to be looking at, year after year."
Kuo said the district has to keep pushing on vaccinations, since just about every student is now eligible for a shot.
"Omicron, the next variant, is coming. We know that the vaccines will work. There is some discussion about whether they will work as well for transmission, but every evidence, right now, is that they will help. They will particularly help if we are fully vaccinated and boosted," he said.
Schools Superintendent Kriner Cash said the system has a contingency plan if virus numbers get really bad coming out of the holidays. Kuo said he wants to see those disease numbers later in the holidays before making any recommendations on what to do.
