Long Beach Unified Pauses COVID Testing For Students

LONG BEACH (CBSLA) – The Long Beach Unified School District is pausing weekly testing for all its unvaccinated students.

The district announced Friday that it is pausing its weekly testing after having conducted three consecutive weeks of testing to open the school year for all its unvaccinated students.

It has conducted about 60,000 student tests, and returned a positivity rate of under 1%, LBUSD Superintendent Dr. Jill Baker said in a letter to parents. According to the latest data on the district's website Monday, 531 students and 34 employees have tested positive for the coronavirus since testing began at the start of the school year.

"This low rate is a testament to the hard work families, students and staff have put in over the last few weeks," Baker wrote.

The district will now pause testing for at least this week in order to "further analyze our data in consultation with health officials and we will keep you informed about further plans as we move forward."

Baker did not provide any further specific details as to why the testing would be paused. All unvaccinated staff are also required to undergo weekly testing. It was unclear if testing would be paused for them as well.

The Los Angeles Unified School District, the second largest school district in the nation with over 600,000 students and 75,000 teachers and staff, is also doing weekly testing for all students and employees, regardless of vaccination status. LAUSD announced earlier this month that it would require vaccinations for all eligible students ages 12 and older.

Currently, the vaccine is only available to those ages 12 and older. However, Pfizer announced Monday that a new study shows the vaccine is safe for children ages 5 to 11.