Page 3 - Mark Casanova News Today

GCISD, which serves about 14,000 students across 20 campuses, plans to return to class on Monday, officials said in a news release Wednesday afternoon.

Thousands of students return to class Tuesday, but it’s unclear if an extended Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday break will slow omicron’s spread.

"No pun intended [the infections] are a game changer for many teams as they enter playoff seasons," said Dr. Mark Casanova of the TMA Covid-19 Taskforce.

The word "flurona" is making headlines and rounds on social media after reports of several cases involving co-infections of both coronavirus and influenza.

Despite the fastest surge in COVID-19 cases yet fueled by the omicron variant, some of the largest school districts in North Texas are still set to let mask mandates expire next month.

Positivity rates and hospitalizations are increasing in Dallas County, and in Tarrant County, health officials said roughly one in five people are testing positive.

Neighborhood Medical Center in far north Dallas went from testing 200 people on average last week to more than 700 on Wednesday. On Thursday, some of the workers quit due to exhaustion.

New data shows total daily cases in the U.S. from the omicron variant of COVID-19 has exceeded the peak of the delta variant from just a few months ago.

As of Friday afternoon, there haven't been any reported cases in Texas, but Dr. Mark Casanova said to assume the variant is here.

The U.S. has followed suit with the EU in restricting travel from visitors from South African regions and seven other countries.