Many students at Montclair High School thought the COVID pandemic was over. For a while it was, but in recent news, many cases of COVID have begun appearing all over the globe. The first hearing about COVID-19 was in January 2020. As soon as the pandemic started, the death toll was increasing daily. COVID is a severe infectious disease. Symptoms include fever/chills, cough, fatigue, sore throat, etc. This disease wiped out over 6,000,000 people globally. This fatal disease is now back. 

From all over the world, officials are announcing that COVID numbers are starting to rise again. This started back in July 2023. There are many cases ranging from New York to here at Montclair High School. Several students and staff have been called and notified that they may have been exposed to COVID. With the numbers rising again it’s tough to tell whether or not schools will start shutting down and transferring to online classes.

Some school districts have been shutting down, due to many of their students and staff being treated with COVID. Others are also enforcing mask mandates. But despite the numbers rising officials believe the death toll won’t be as bad as the pandemic from 2020 to 2023.

 There are some new strains and variants of COVID. The newest variant of COVID-19 is known as Ba.2.86. There have been two cases in the United States that are confirmed to have that variant. Many of these people who have gotten COVID have gotten the vaccine, so their symptoms aren’t as bad as unvaccinated people.

If students take the necessary precautions and be more self-aware then COVID might not hit our school as hard as last time. When people are considerate and stay home when inflicted COVID-19 that will drastically limit the cases in Montclair. Fellow Montclair High School student Dean Peterson, recently came back from being out with COVID for a week, shares his experience of having COVID. “My experience with it is I had lots of cold sweats and a lot of headaches and had me wanting to stay in bed all day”. The pandemic was horrendous, the world came to a halt. This time, people should be safer and more hyper-vigilant. The only way to save humanity is to start with the people first.

Montclair High School teacher Mrs. Arbizu also gave her viewpoint on the uprising of COVID-19.”This is a way to work together as a community. It’s fortunate that COVID doesn’t have a devastating impact as before, but it’s still important to protect the community and those who are susceptible to the very negative effects of COVID. Let’s be a CAV family, let’s protect, support, and be respectful of each other and get through this together”.

MOHI is one big CAV family, everybody protects and cares for each other. Everybody must help each other get through this ordeal.