FULTON COUNTY, Ga. —
A Fulton County school's first-grade class is moving to remote learning due to increased positive COVID-19 cases, the district announced Monday.
Staff and students in the first grade at Ocee Elementary School is going will move to virtual learning from Tuesday, Aug. 31 through Friday, Sept. 3.
People who specifically need to quarantine have been contacted directly.
According to Fulton County Schools, face-to-face instruction for the first grade level at Ocee is expected to resume on Tuesday, Sept. 7.
"If circumstances dictate additional steps, we will notify the school community immediately," the school system said in a Facebook post.
This comes as Georgia Department of Public Health Commissioner Kathleen Toomey spoke during a Monday news conference, stating that Georgia is behind other states in tackling the delta surge.
She stated that virtually, 100% of all cases are of the Delta variant, approaching the worst cases numbers and hospitalizations since January of this year.
Toomey also said that more than half of the outbreaks in the state of Georgia can be linked back to Georgia K-12 schools. She also pointed out the high rate that kids can transmit the Delta variant to others who may be at a higher risk.
"We've seen, however, the highest number of weekly outbreaks since the pandemic began. 170 outbreaks statewide with more than half of these outbreaks in K-12 schools," Toomey said in the press conference.
Kemp was asked about the issue of kids wearing masks at school.
"I'm all for anyone wearing a mask," he said. However, his answers danced around the idea of whether schools should enforce mask mandates. Instead, Gov. Kemp simply stated they need to encourage people to get vaccinated.
"Mandates like that are only going to cause division on campus," he added.
Both Kemp and Toomey stress the highest rate of deaths and hospitalizations across Georgia are linked back to those who are not vaccinated.