Flu surge forces some North Texas districts to close schools
NORTH TEXAS – A surge in flu cases is causing several North Texas school districts to shut down their campuses.
Comanche ISD in Comanche County shut down all of its schools Tuesday and Wednesday because of spreading sickness. The district plans to reopen tomorrow.
Morgan ISD, in Bosque County southeast of Glen Rose, has decided to shut down for the rest of the week and will reopen on Monday, Feb. 3.
"Over the past three days, student and staff absences have increased and we have been at or below 70% attendance district-wide. We do not make this decision lightly, but the high number of staff and teacher absences prevents us from safely and effectively covering classes and other duties," the district said.
Treetops International School in Euless will be closed for the rest of the week because of illness.
Godley ISD, which mainly serves families in Johnson County, has also shut down campuses until Monday.
"This was an extraordinary situation, but our superintendent and the leadership team, the campus principals all were weighing in," said Jeff Meador, the chief communications officer with Godley ISD. "And when we started to look at the numbers – the number of kids that were out, the number of teachers and staff were out – it quickly became a clear decision that we had to make to protect the health and safety of our students and staff."
According to Godley ISD, 650 students missed class Tuesday and more were going home sick throughout the day, but the bigger issue is teacher absences. About 10 to 12 percent of its staff called out because of illness, which made it nearly impossible to offer effective instruction.
"Because of that, we were combining classes, pulling in office aides and others to cover classes," Meador said. "It made us really look, and see the need to close down, do a reset, allow students and staff the opportunity to stay home and get well."
They'll come back on Monday to newly sanitized campuses.
"So that we do our part on making sure that the building, and everywhere that students go, everything they touch is as safe as we can make it," said Meador.
The flu isn't just taking its toll on schools. North Texas hospitals are seeing a big increase in patients with the virus.
Demand is so high for Tamiflu, the medicine used to treat the flu, that some pharmacies don't have it or are down to a box or two. According to CVS Health, there isn't a widespread shortage of Tamiflu or other flu-related medications, but an individual store may be temporarily out-of-stock because of the increased demand.
A spokesperson for CVS said, "If an individual CVS Pharmacy store is temporarily out-of-stock, our pharmacy teams make every effort to ensure patients have access to the medications they need and, if possible, will work with patients and prescribers to identify potential alternatives."
"Tamiflu is an antiviral medication that can decrease the amount of days you're sick," said Dr. Stephanie Felton, an attending physician at the Cook Children's Emergency Department. "If your child is healthy and has a normal immune system, their immune system will fight the flu without any medications."
Doctors say most people can treat the flu at home with rest and fluids, but they urge patients not to go back to work or school until they've been fever-free for at least 24 hours. That will help stop the rapid spread of the virus.
"Every year, we obviously see the flu," Dr. Felton said. "This year, I will say, that we're seeing an abundance of it."
The larger school districts in North Texas haven't had to shut down any campuses yet, but both Mesquite and Arlington ISDs report an uptick in flu cases.
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