TEA shortens length of isolation for staffers
School staffers in Texas who have COVID-19 can return to campuses after at least five days since the onset of any symptoms if their condition has improved and they have remained fever-free for 24 hours without medicine, according to new guidance from the Texas Education Agency.
The guidance brings health recommendations for school systems in line with the latest guidelines for adults from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC officials two weeks ago said people with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID should isolate for five days, followed by another five days of diligent maskwearing around others. Previously, the CDC had recommended a 10-day isolation period.
The updated TEA guidelines deferred to a Department of State Health Services rule for determining when students can return to instruction following an infection. As of Monday, that rule calls for schools to exclude a student — symptomatic or asymptomatic — from class for 10 days. The rule’s webpage says it last was updated Sept. 20.
The health agency this week confirmed its rule was under review.
Staffers who test positive but do not present symptoms also
may return to schools at least five days after the day they tested positive, under the new TEA guidance.
The changes come as school districts resumed instruction following winter breaks while the state coped with the latest COVID surge being driven by the omicron variant.
Researchers have said cases
and hospitalizations in Texas are expected to continue climbing with the latter potentially reaching new levels. Health experts have told school administrators that the surge is likely to get worse and could reach a peak this month.
The spread of COVID, particularly the highly transmissible omicron variant in the last month or
so, has remained relentless.
In Bexar County, the COVID-19 testing positivity rate has increased from 2.2 percent Dec. 25 to 27.3 percent as of Monday. Since Dec. 25, the number of hospitalized patients with COVID has grown from 202 to 898 as of Tuesday.
Although some models have suggested the current wave could begin to wane in about two weeks, Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff is concerned about the rapid increase of cases and hospital admissions.
“It’s a steeper rise than we’ve seen before,” Wolff said. “We don’t know how high it will go or when we will reach that high point.”
Area school districts last week last reported that thousands of students and teachers stayed home as the coronavirus walloped San Antonio.
Per the new TEA guidance, staffers who were in close contact with a Covid-19-positive individual do not need to stay at home if they are older than 18 and have received all recommended vaccine doses, including boosters, or have fully recovered after having COVID-19 within the last 90 days.
“For staff who meet the close contact threshold with a COVID-19 positive individual who are not in one of the above groups, it is recommended that the school system require that staff remain off campus during the stay-at-home period, but this is a local employment policy decision,” TEA officials wrote. “If these staff continue to work on campus, rapid testing must be performed periodically for five days post-exposure, with testing on the fifth day recommended.”