Foreign Language School’s COVID-19 Cases Double

EF International Language Campus has a confirmed outbreak of 46 students with COVID-19, nearly twice the number when the outbreak was first announced. The school had 25 confirmed cases as of July 22. EF has not closed its campus, but the Santa Barbara Public Health Department is reportedly working with school leadership to mitigate the situation. EF spokesperson Jill Reilly said, “The infected individuals have been in isolation, and close contacts have been quarantining per public health guidelines.”

According to Jackie Ruiz, public information officer for county Public Health, only a small number of students testing positive were living with host families. EF host families are required to be fully vaccinated.

EF has 515 foreign students enrolled at the Santa Barbara campus. Other sources confirmed 50 percent of EF students are fully vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine and only 100 of the students are living with host families. These sources state the positive cases are quarantined at the Tropicana Gardens in Isla Vista. All EF students not living with host families are also housed in the Tropicana, which EF typically rents during the summer.

The Public Health Department’s outbreak investigation is ongoing. EF stated that free testing will remain available for the entire campus community while administrators work with Public Health to retrain their staff and implement new COVID-19 guidelines.

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