At least 25 D.C. public schools have transitioned to virtual learning through the end of the year, amid the recent COVID-19 surge in the region.

On Tuesday night, the school system closed 14 more schools due to COIVD-19 spread: Barnard Elementary, Dorothy Height Elementary, Excel Academy, Eliot-Hine Middle, Hart Middle, Jefferson Middle, Ludlow-Taylor Elementary, Kimball Elementary, Kelly Miller Middle, Kramer Middle, Oyster Adams Bilingual, River Terrace Education Campus, Watkins Elementary, and Wilson High School. Earlier on Tuesday, DCPS dismissed Drew and West Elementary Schools early, and announced they’d be operating virtually until the new year.

The schools join an already growing list of campuses shuttered by infections among staff and students in the past week. D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Lewis Ferebee announced Monday that five schools — Beers Elementary, Boone Elementary, Miner Elementary, Stuart-Hobson Middle, and Takoma Elementary — would teach students virtually through Dec. 22, the last day before the holiday break. McKinley Technology High School, Turner Elementary School, Bard High School Early College DC, and Whittier Elementary School had already transitioned to virtual learning.

On Friday, Prince George’s County Schools announced that all schools in its system would turn to virtual learning through mid-January.

On Monday, Mayor Muriel Bowser reinstated the indoor mask mandate and declared a state of emergency. Bowser also announced that DCPS would not return to instruction until Jan. 5, delaying its return from the holiday break by two days to give students and staff time to pick up rapid antigen tests. DCPS is encouraging but not requiring a negative test to return to class, and more than 100,000 tests will be given to schools — enough to test every student and faculty member.

“Multiple positive cases of COVID-19 at school were reported in recent days that impacted operations, resulting in the temporary shift to virtual instruction through Dec. 22,” Ferebee said. “Right now, I want to remind everyone that the CDC has been very clear that the expectation is that we continue to operate schools, and there’s no other guidance that we don’t do so.”

In a previous interview with DCist/WAMU about the first school to suspend in-person learning — Whittier Elementary — Ferebee said the closure was tied to school workers testing positive, leading to understaffing. DCPS isn’t using any one metric to decide which schools would transition to virtual learning, he said.

“This was a scenario in which staffing was impacted at the level where we could not continue to operate with the same goals for our learning environment,” Ferebee said of Whittier.

Some DCPS teachers and parents have been pressuring the school system to cancel in-person classes for at least one or two weeks beyond winter break, citing the District’s rising case count — which forced nearly 3,470 students to quarantine last week. School staff have said they feel unsafe at work.

“We’re at a breaking point,” one teacher at McKinley Technology High School told DCist/WAMU. “We’re watching this happen like a train wreck in slow motion.”

The District has seen a 98% increase in daily cases, per the Washington Post’s COVID data tracker. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced this week that the omicron variant is responsible for about 73% of infections in the U.S., a huge leap from the nearly 3% that was reported last week.

This post has been updated with additional DCPS closures. 

Previously: 

‘A Train Wreck In Slow Motion:’ COVID Cases Rise In Some D.C. Schools, Straining Teachers And Families