January: Lake County has recorded 5,505 cases between January 17th-30th. Lake County now has the second highest cases and seconds highest deaths. We have 4,000,000 people that are vaccinated out of 6.6 million in the state of Indiana.

The latest Covid-19 variant, Omicron, has caused symptoms known as “long” which are pain, fatigue, and brain fog that can last months or weeks. This variant has caused many businesses and schools to once again begin to contact trace, require masks and place limitations on events.

Life At GHS: In the first few weeks of January, most of Indiana has had returned to the “red,” meaning that many of its counties had significant spikes in Covid-19 cases. What does this mean for the students at GHS? Griffith is no longer enforcing a mask mandate. Superintendent Dumezich has stood by her decision to make that a personal family choice. The school has also removed the dividers at the lunch tables and teachers are no longer required to have their students in rows facing the front. The times of contact tracing are now long gone although staff monitors each situation and spike in cases closely. Quarantine mandates have been lifted and it is left to the discretion of GHS families to comply with the CDC and Griffith’s quarantine suggestions. The quarantine period has been completely reduced to solely the person who has tested positive for COVID-19. The school recommends a mask be worn for five days following the infected person’s quarantine. GHS must still follow the DOT guidelines of masks being worn on public transportation and has not taken that mandate lightly. Masks are being enforced on busses and for those who don’t comply, they are not allowed to ride. The teachers at GHS are also free to exercise their choice for wearing a mask or not and sanitation requirements have been lifted, although many teachers prefer to continue to wipe down the desks between classes.