LESLIE COUNTY, Ky. (LEX 18) — The students and faculty members in the Leslie County school district just got an extended Thanksgiving break.
“They’re monitoring their absenteeism rates, and they’re seeing a lot of influenza and strep right now,” said Kentucky River District Public Health Director Scott Lockard.
With most of the exposure in Leslie County before the holiday, Lockard believes the district-wide shutdown was the correct choice despite being so early in the season.
“When we see mass absences, we can’t say, ‘we shouldn’t do this until January,’ the need is now,” Lockard stated.
Dr. Beth Hawse, a Lexington pediatrician, is also concerned, given that we’re all incubators now for anything we might’ve been exposed to during last week's holiday.
“The next 7 to 14 days will tell us a lot,” she said from her office in between seeing patients. “Hopefully, this is just a small grouping of cases,” she added.
Closing the schools allows everyone to recover from what they have now and prevents the spread of viruses or bacteria for which they aren’t yet showing symptoms.
“That’s one of the most effective, non-pharmaceutical interventions we can do, is to discourage mass gatherings,” Lockard said.
He also stressed the importance of getting vaccinated against the flu, COVID-19, and even RSV if your doctor recommends the latter. And, he said, it’s important to shelve an old-school way of thinking.
“It used to be a badge of courage, ‘I’ve never missed a day or work in 20 years, or I went to work sick,’ we don’t want to hear that anymore,” he said before urging people to stay home when you have symptoms.
