Manteca Unified has now gone two weeks with no staff members testing positive for COVID-19.

It underscores how effective the district’s COVID-19 protocols have been to date. Many larger districts, including San Francisco, haven’t returned high school students to campuses for in-person learning since mid-March 2020.

Teachers in the SF district, despite The City having a low positivity rate for months and not having hospitals overstressed with COVID patients, did not feel safe returning to the classroom based on that district’s protocols.

All students in Manteca Unified except for roughly 1,800 enrolled in the online academy have been back in the classrooms for four full days a week since mid-April.

The district COVID dashboard as of May 7 shows there were 17 students out of 24,000 currently positive with COVID. That includes one online academy student.

Statistically that means 1 out of every 1,800 online students are now positive with COVID compared to 1 in every 1,425 students of the 22,200 that are in-person learning.

The dashboard has been updated by  the district to show how many students and how many staff member  test positive at a particular point in time each week as well as what school they are connected with.

Of the 17 students all but 6 were at Weston Ranch, East Union, Lathrop, Sierra, or Manteca high schools.  It translates into less than 0.16 percent currently being positive for COVID.

There were 47 patients in hospitals countywide as of Tuesday due to COVID. There are four apiece at Doctors Hospital and Kaiser Manteca.  Of those three are in ICU.

Countywide ICUs have 97 patients making ICU capacity at 98 percent. Only 12 are COVID patients.

There are currently 1,118 active cases in San Joaquin County. Testing positive does not mean a person is or will become ill.

There have been 73,267 COVID cases since March 2000 out of a county population of 783,000. The number of deaths is now at 1,391, nine more than a week ago.

As of Thursday, 36.86 percent or 207,417 of the adult population countywide has been vaccinated, Another 74,707 or 13.8 percent are partially vaccinated.

Health experts have estimated that 70 percent to 85 percent of a city’s population will need to be immune to reach herd immunity. However, that number is a moving target based on numerous factors.

By going to sjready.org you can find vaccination sites where you can register for COVID-19 vaccines.

It includes all Costco stores in the county including Manteca, the Ripon and Lathrop SaveMarts, CVS Pharmacy, Walgreens, Safeway, and Walmart.

Modern Urgent Care in Manteca at 1630 W. Yosemite Ave., Suite A, offers shots seven days a week 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Heath care provider networks that typically deal with established patients include Golden Valley Health Centers, Kaiser Permanente, and Sutter Health.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com