Two Boys & Girls Club members test positive for COVID

Two Sonoma Valley youth attending Boys & Girls Club summer camp tested positive for coronavirus last week, prompting officials to halt activities for the small pods that contained the affected youth.

Cary Snowden, executive director Boys & Girls Club of Sonoma Valley, said the two unrelated club members, both under the age of 12, had family members who also tested positive. Both children showed no symptoms of the disease, and there has been no known transmission or outbreak attributed to their cases.

Since reopening last summer, the club has separated members into “pods,” which are small groups of children of similar ages, each with their own set of adult supervisors. All the children in the two affected pods were sent home until testing cleared everyone to return, Snowden said.

The club has served more than 500 students over the past year or more and seen a total of 12 positive tests, most of which occurred before the vaccine was available. Counting the two cases this week, that includes six children along with six staff members.

“We definitely had our concerns last week,” she said, but feels the club has “been super fortunate” to not become a breeding ground for COVID-19 cases.

Snowden said she is proud of the staff and the parents of club members for being “diligent” about reporting any symptoms and following strict protocols, which still require masks indoors for all – unvaccinated and vaccinated – and staff must wear masks in any program area where kids are, she said.

They do not require children to wear masks during outdoor activities, but Snowden said it seems like most of the children keep their masks on, possibly out of habit. Social distancing is still practiced, and requires more space when the children are eating, and that the pods to not interact with one another.

The majority of the staff is vaccinated, and there have been no positive tests among the staff since vaccines became available. None of the middle or high school members of the Teen Club have tested positive, and Snowden said she thinks a good number of them are vaccinated.

There is not yet an approved vaccine for children under the age of 12, and the Centers for Disease Control believes the Delta variant of COVID-19 is more contagious.

The club has a “really close partnership with the health department,” Snowden said with whom they consult on a regular basis to ensure they are following the most responsible and recent guidelines, including contacting the department last week after learning about the two positive cases. Testing was provided to staff, club members and families of members by the health department.

“Again, I credit our staff for being so on top of our policies and procedures and I am so grateful that our families have been vigilant about letting us know if their child has been sick or has had a positive test. We feel fortunate that we have been able to provide our services while keeping our members as safe and well as possible,” Snowden said.

Last October a parent of a child member tested positive and out of an abundance of caution the club sent staff and members home to quarantine for 10 days. There were no additional cases to come from the incident.

The New York Times reported this week, “New research suggests the Delta variant may cause more serious illness in adults, but it’s not known if the variant puts children at greater risk of more serious illness. Compared to adults, children diagnosed with COVID-19 are more likely to have mild symptoms or none at all. Children are also far less likely to develop severe illness, be hospitalized or die from the disease. Out of about 3.5 million cases of COVID-19 in children in the United States, the National Center for Health Statistics has reported, as of July 28, that 519 children have died from COVID-19 (fewer than 0.015 percent), including 346 children 5 to 17 years of age, and 173 children 4 or younger. Children with underlying medical conditions are the most likely to be hospitalized.”