Protocol for schools updated
The Connecticut Department of Public Health last Friday released new guidance for school districts regarding how long students should quarantine, when to test and when to return to school.
The guidelines also give schools the option to discontinue contact tracing and instead focus on detecting symptomatic students and staff.
The department’s update follows new guidance released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which shortened the recommended isolation period for vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals to five days.
Here’s what you need to know.
What should my child do if they are exposed to COVID-19?
Fully vaccinated students who have a close contact with a known COVID-19 case can continue going to school for in-person learning if they are asymptomatic, the Department of Public Health recommends.
They should continue to wear a mask around others for 10 days, and should consider quarantining for five days from activities outside of school where the virus could be transmitted.
The department recommends getting tested either at a testing site or with an at-home rapid test or a lab test.
The guidelines are more strict for unvaccinated or partially vaccinated students. The department is now recommending that these students stay home from school and quarantine for five days after their last exposure to COVID-19.
Like fully vaccinated students, these students should also test for COVID19 after five days and wear a mask around others for 10 days.
What if my child develops symptoms?
This also depends on vaccination status.
Fully vaccinated students should isolate at home immediately after symptoms develop and access a test. If negative, they can return to regular activities 24 hours after symptoms significantly improve.
If positive, students should isolate for a minimum of five days. They can return to regular activities as early as day six so long as symptoms are improved, but should continue to wear a mask around others for an additional five days.
Unvaccinated or partially vaccinated students with symptoms, if also notified of a close contact with COVID19, must isolate for a minimum of five days regardless of test results.
These students can return to regular activities after six days if symptoms significantly improve.
If they are not notified of a known close contact with COVID-19, unvaccinated or partially vaccinated students should follow the same guidance as fully vaccinated students.
What if my child tests positive, but doesn’t have any symptoms?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that people isolate for five days after a positive test, regardless of whether or not they have symptoms and regardless of vaccination status.
What about contact tracing?
The Department of Public Health is recommending that schools discontinue contact tracing for cases that occur inside school, and focus instead on identifying symptomatic cases among students and staff.
Contact tracing becomes less effective when community transmission levels are high, as they now are in Connecticut, the department noted, and the risk of in-school exposure is relatively low when robust safety and mitigation strategies are followed.
They also highlight the current wave of testing demand and shortened isolation guidelines from the CDC, which “make it likely that many students would be outside of their quarantine period by the time contact tracing could be completed.”
What should schools do if they don’t contact trace?
Schools should continue to enforce universal masking inside of schools, barring medical exceptions, the department recommends.
Periods of unmasking inside school, like lunch periods, should be brief and physically distanced.
Schools should also continue to keep parents and guardians of students, as well as staff, appraised of the positive cases within the school population.