It was wonderful to see students from all grade levels on campus this week, and we hope to see even more students come to campus in the coming weeks. We know that attending school in person is good for students in a number of ways: the routine of waking up, getting dressed and heading to campus establishes healthy patterns for teenagers; the opportunity to see friends and peers between classes, during milk break and free periods allows for good, non-screen-related social interactions; after-school activities have started up again, and being on campus during the day makes participation easier for students; and we will continue to offer routine COVID-19 surveillance testing (see below), which is more convenient for students who are on campus.
Vaccines. There were several encouraging news items on the COVID-19 vaccine front this week. UC San Diego is
working with the county, the mayor’s office, SDPD and the Padres to increase the number of vaccines delivered each day by creating a vaccine “super station” at Petco Park. On Wednesday, Gov. Newsom announced that Californians
over the age of 65 are cleared to be vaccinated. This is the first group outside of health care workers to be authorized for the vaccine (and the initial cohort from Phase 1B), but a shortage in available doses has generated some confusion about this phase of the vaccine rollout. And finally, Johnson & Johnson released data
from their initial trialsthat seem to suggest its vaccine is safe and triggers an immune response.
Testing. This week, COVID-19 surveillance testing has been moved to the stadium tennis court classrooms number three and four. Any middle school student can test on campus the afternoon of Tuesday, Jan. 19 between 2 - 2:45 p.m. Please click on this link:
Middle School to reserve a spot. Any member of the freshman or sophomore class can test on campus the afternoon of Thursday, Jan. 21 between 2 - 2:45 p.m. Please click on this link:
Ninth and Tenth grades to reserve a spot. We will monitor both of these sign-ups and if we need to add more time slots, we will. If you have not already, please fill out
this waiver to
covid-testing@bishops.com prior to testing. There is no need to fill out the waiver again if you turned it in for any of our recent testing dates.
New cases. We learned this week that two community members have tested positive for COVID-19 and are currently in isolation. One of these individuals was symptomatic at the time of their test and was swabbed off-campus. The other was identified through our surveillance testing. Due to privacy laws, information regarding these individuals’ identities cannot be released, and we are limited in the details we can offer. Please respect their privacy. These individuals were last on campus in mid-December. We have informed the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency about these cases, and they will identify any potential close contacts. If you do not receive notice from us or the health department, you are not considered a close contact.