Los Angeles Times - 04.03.2020

B4 WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4, 2020 LATIMES.COM

CORONAVIRUS

ty. Health experts have said
that an increase in the num-
ber of cases in the nation
does not necessarily mean
that the virus is spreading
rapidly.
Nevertheless, school offi-
cials across the state are do-
ing their best to prepare in
an anxious environment.
At L.A. Unified School
District, an official checks in
every day with the county
health department and asks
three questions: Is anyone
sick in L.A. County? Are
there any exposures affect-
ing schools? Can we go
about things normally?
So far the answers have
been: no, no, yes.
Schools are operating as
usual, with algebra tests,
lunch lines and basketball
games in the gym. But offi-
cials know that could
change.
“We’re prepared as best
we can be, recognizing this
as uncharted waters for all of
us,” said L.A. schools Supt.
Austin Beutner.
That preparation in-
cluded a 90-minute meeting
Monday at district head-
quarters with labor groups.
The union representing
teachers, counselors, librari-
ans and nurses was repre-
sented by Alex Orozco.
Orozco wanted reassur-
ance that district employees
would not be penalized
“when it comes to having to
miss work” related to the co-
ronavirus. And as far as hy-
giene goes, “we want to
make sure students have
enough time to wash their
hands” within the regi-
mented schedule of the
school day, said Orozco, who
is the designated disaster-
response liaison for United
Teachers Los Angeles.
Beutner seemed sympa-
thetic on both points,
Orozco said.

Deep-cleaning

‘high-touch’ areas

Beutner said that Depu-
ty Supt. Megan Reilly is in
charge of the district’s re-
sponse and that teams are at
work in every facet of opera-
tions in the nation’s second-
largest school system. At the
school level, overtime pay is
available to allow for deeper
and more thorough cleaning
of high-touch areas.
Towel dispensers, door-
knobs, staircase railings,
computer keyboards, toys in
a kindergarten classroom,
seats on buses, the coffee pot
handle in the faculty lounge.
The list goes on.
District planners have
been asked to plan for myri-
ad scenarios: What would
happen if most of the payroll
department called in sick?
What if the IT department
needed to be quarantined or
if there was a break in the
supply chain of the vast food
services operation?
Like some other school
systems, including those in
Long Beach and Glendale,
L.A. Unified is able to reach
parents and staff by phone
or email through automated
systems. These districts and
others also have set up a web
page for bulletins, general
information and links.
A key task is providing
accurate information and

tamping down premature

alarm, Glendale Supt. Vivi-

an Ekchian said.

She has directed that ev-

ery inquiry be answered in-

dividually, although often

that answer is simply a refer-

ral to an L.A. County or Cen-

ters for Disease Control and

Prevention online answer

sheet.

L.A. Unified has an infor-

mation video and a tele-

phone hotline that is staffed

from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. The

number is: (213) 443-1300.

Planning for

possible closures

The most difficult sce-

nario is one or multiple

school closures.

School districts said they

would rely on public health

officials to decide if and

when schools should shut

their doors. That could hap-

pen if, for example, a student

or staff member is diag-

nosed with coronavirus, said

Debra Duardo, the L.A.

County superintendent of

schools.

But, she said, “we’re not

there yet.”

Still, the county office is

reaching out to districts to

make sure they have ways to

keep students learning if a

campus is closed, Duardo

said.

School districts are dis-

cussing online learning.

Some schools have laptops

and other devices that stu-

dents can take home, while

some districts are exploring

additional possibilities. In

the Pasadena Unified

School District, officials are

thinking about tapping into

the district’s TV station to

help supplement learning,

spokeswoman Hilda Ramir-

ez Horvath said.

But these strategies be-

come especially tricky in dis-

tricts that serve low-income

families. Many lack internet

access at home; for many,

the only family computer is a

shared smartphone.

Duardo said that even

without technology, teach-

ers can find ways to be effec-

tive.

“I don’t think it really

matters the form you’re us-

ing for instruction, even if it’s

the old-fashioned providing

an instructional packet,

with some good back-and-

forth communication, a lot

of learning can continue to

take place,” she said.

At Paramount Unified

School District in Southeast

L.A., where officials recently

ordered alcohol-based hand

sanitizer for their class-

rooms, Supt. Ruth Pérez is

thinking about the heavy

burden of possible school

closures on families with few

child-care options.

The district of about

15,000 students is about 90%

Latino and 94% low-income.

“All students in grades

three through 12 have

Chromebooks,” Pérez said.

Although not all families

have their own internet ac-

cess, at least several hun-

dred have access to hot

spots provided as a public

service by Sprint. “We also

have materials and text-

books on Chromebooks that

you don’t need internet ac-

cess for.”

Doing schoolwork at

home “is always a possibility,

but there are parents who

work and leaving a third- or

fourth-grader at home by

themselves is something we

would want to avoid,” Pérez

said.

When it comes to clo-

sures, L.A. Unified at least

has one painfully earned

planning advantage: It has

dealt with shutdowns be-

fore.

In the last several years, a

hoax terrorist threat shut

down the entire school sys-

tem for a day; fires shut

down campuses across the

San Fernando Valley; and a

teachers’ strike virtually

brought instruction to a halt

for six days.

During those crises, L.A.

Unified’s responses earned a

mix of praise and criticism.

During recent wildfires, for

example, some faulted the

school system for waiting

too long to cancel classes.

Yet officials carried out the

widespread school closures

in potentially hazardous

conditions without incident.

Colleges taking

precautions

University officials are

also preparing and respond-

ing to the virus.

Four students in the Los

Rios Community College

District — two at Sacra-

mento City College and one

each at American River Col-

lege and Cosumnes River

College — reported expo-

sure to an individual con-

firmed to have COVID-19.

All of the exposures hap-

pened while the students

were working off campus as

medical professionals, the

district said on its website.

They were told to self-quar-

antine for 14 days and report

any symptoms to county

health officials.

The district has had no

confirmed infections so far.

County health officials di-

rected all three colleges to

proceed normally with class

and work schedules.

“Out of an abundance of

caution, all campuses have

implemented enhanced

cleaning practices in high-

traffic areas,” the district

said.

Paul Feist, vice chancel-

lor for communications

and marketing at the Cali-

fornia Community Colleges

Chancellor’s Office, said no

colleges have closed as a re-

sult of the outbreak, and he

was not aware of any com-

munity college students

with confirmed cases of

COVID-19.

Chancellor Eloy Ortiz

Oakley directed colleges to

review their emergency op-

erations plans, Feist said,

and a web page is available

to keep colleges up to date.

Mike Uhlenkamp,

spokesman for Cal State’s

chancellor’s office, said that

before last week, the uni-

versity had focused on re-

stricting travel to affected

countries and ensuring stu-

dents who were overseas

were safe.

But on Friday, two days

after the CDC announced it

was investigating the first

possible case of “community

spread” of coronavirus in the

U.S., the university activat-

ed its “emergency opera-

tions center,” a virtual forum

on which the chancellor’s of-

fice and university cam-

puses can share updates

about the virus and commu-

nity responses.

No cases of COVID-

have been reported among

Cal State students or staff to

date, Uhlenkamp said. It will

be up to individual college

presidents to decide

whether to close their cam-

puses.

Uhlenkamp said all Cal

State campuses have pan-

demic and continuity of op-

erations plans.

“We’ve encouraged them

to review those,” he said.

“Get your decision makers

on the same page so you can

move swiftly.”

At the University of Cali-

fornia, the Office of the Pres-

ident put out guidelines for

all locations. The 19-page

document includes informa-

tion about distributing

masks, taking family and

medical leave, quarantining

students, and reporting

cases to local or state health

authorities, among other

topics.

Three UC Davis students

had been placed in isolation

but were released after one

tested negative for the virus.

As they make their

preparations, many school

officials say that for now the

biggest concern is calming

worried families.

“We need to be prepared

so there’s the least amount

of disruption in learning,”

said Duardo, the L.A.

County schools superin-

tendent. But, she added,

“there’s a lot of fear and I

think, unfortunately, some

of it is unnecessary anxiety

among children.”

Schools plan for last resort — closures

SEVERALschool districts in Southern California have systems in place to reach parents and staff by phone or email, and have set up web

pages for bulletins about the coronavirus. Above, plant manager Martin Nevarez cleans a bathroom at John Burroughs Middle School.

Francine OrrLos Angeles Times

[Schools, from B1]

“It’s human nature to
want to touch your face,”
said Dr. Otto Yang, an infec-
tious diseases expert at
UCLA.
There’s a reason for that.
Touching our faces may
actually be related to nega-
tive feelings — a feeling when
we’ve failed to achieve a goal
or aren’t satisfied, according
to a research article pub-
lished in the journal PLoS
One.
Face touching can help
us deal with anxiety and dis-
comfort, and may be com-
forting, the report said. We
might think we want to
touch our faces because of a
perceived itch or to groom
ourselves, but research sug-
gests we’re actually doing it
because we’re somehow un-
easy or unsettled, according
to research described in the
study.
Touching our faces is also
thought to be a way we
might try to avoid being dis-
tracted. In a study of face
touching, researchers con-
cocted ways of trying to dis-

tract study participants

during a difficult mental

task, and found that the hu-

man test subjects increas-

ingly touched their faces

when their attention was

distracted and they needed

to refocus.

Unfortunately, the things

we touch the most often can

often be filthy. Such as our

beloved smartphones.

Which we probably touch as

soon as we wash our hands.

Colonies of bacteria were

discovered on the vast ma-

jority of healthcare workers’

cellphones in one study; 93%

of the phones studied were

found to be crawling with

germs. Most non-healthcare

workers’ phones were also

dirty, with 58% of them home

to microbes, said the study,

published in the Iranian

Journal of Microbiology.

While many people fear

being sneezed or coughed

on, there’s plenty of convinc-

ing evidence that shows just

how easy it is for a virus to

enter through face touching.

Some viruses can survive

for days on hard surfaces,

just waiting to be picked up

by a new fingertip. One

study in the Journal of Hos-

pital Infection found flu

virus persisting on hard sur-

faces in flu patients’ hospital

rooms. The virus was found

on a computer mouse, bed

rail, wall, sofa and clothes.

(In one case, the virus sur-

vived on a surface even after

the room was cleaned and

left empty for 72 hours be-

fore it was tested.)

Viruses are also common

in daycare centers. One

study found more than half

of tested surfaces were con-

taminated with flu virus;

another said “respiratory vi-

ruses were omnipresent ...

especially on the toys.”

Sometimes, it may not be

the droplets in the sneezes

and coughs that are most in-

fectious. Instead, the virus is

in the snot, and the infected

mucus is probably what

helps it spread from person

to person, and hand to hand,

according to a number of

studies.

And those seeking safety

in masks should realize that

they don’t keep you from

touching your face.

Surgical masks don’t cov-

er the eyes. And people

wearing masks can some-

times get an itch on their

nose, and if they rub their

nose through their mask,

they’re likely to rub their

eyes, said Dr. James Cherry,

a UCLA infectious diseases

expert.

“Viruses are very happy

infecting through the eyes as

well as through nose and

mouth,” Cherry said.

So what can people do to

break the habit?

It’s not going to be easy,

and some of these ideas will

probably sound weird.

8 Start being mindful

when you do touch your face,

catching yourself when —

and, preferably, before —

you do it.

8 If you catch yourself be-

fore touching your face, con-

sider folding your hands or

doing something else with

them, suggests one skin

beauty care website.

8 Got an itch? Try to ig-

nore it. If that’s bothersome,

wash your hands, then

scratch it, then wash your

hands again. Or buy sterile

wooden tongue depressors

to use as a tool to scratch

itches.

8 Perhaps consider wear-

ing gloves. The latest food

safety gloves can also be

used on smartphone

screens, and gloves might

make you more conscious

about touching your face.

8 Don’t get discouraged if

it seems hard to learn how to

not touch your face.

“Politicians, for example,

learn through extensive

training to restrain from

touching their face during

public speaking,” said Mar-

tin Grunwald, author of a

book on face touching,

“Homo hapticus,” and an ex-

pert on the subject at the

University of Leipzig in Ger-

many.

He also co-wrote the

study published in PLoS

One on face touching. Still,

“this behavior requires ex-

treme self-control and is ex-

tremely trying.”

Of course, keeping your

hands clean is essential.

Hand-washing with soap

and water for 20 seconds is

effective at killing germs.

Bleach-based wipes also

work — and wipe down your

phone! Hand sanitizer with

at least 60% alcohol can be

effective in killing some vi-

ruses, including the new co-

ronavirus, but can be inef-

fective with other viruses,

UCLA’s Yang said.

There is a bright spot for

those who can master a

touchless lifestyle.

There was a “substan-

tially lower risk of communi-

ty-acquired influenza infec-

tion” for people in the Chi-

nese province of Fujian who

often washed their hands,

rarely touched their face and

received the annual flu shot,

according to a study pub-

lished in the journal Medi-

cine.

Most of the flu transmis-

sion analyzed in that study

was probably caused by

touching contaminated sur-

faces and putting dirty fin-

gertips in their mouth, nose

or eyes, the authors said.

A common way to get a virus: Touch your face

[Face,from B1]