On Oct. 13, the Sacramento County Health Department gave schools the green light to reopen classrooms following careful guidelines and precautions designed to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
While many of the county’s 240,000 students — roughly 11 percent African American — and their families celebrated the news, other families weren’t sure if it was the right move, especially grandparents who face the greatest health risk from the pandemic. A third of the county’s nearly 27,000 COVID-19 positives are over age 49, and most of the deaths have been residents 55 and over, said Sacramento County Public Health Officer, Dr. Olivia Kasirye.