Palm diocese requires students to get virus test
Students and staff at Palm Beach County Catholic schools will need a negative COVID-19 test to return to school if they travel anywhere by plane.
School Superintendent Gary Gelo sent a letter to parents Wednesday informing them of the diocese’s new rules, which require them to quarantine for 10 days if they don’t get a negative test.
Gelo acknowledged that the requirement could affect families’ vacation plans, but “given the increasing number of cases around the country and travel at peak periods, this has become a necessary measure,” he wrote.
Students or staff should get a COVID test no sooner than five days after returning from their trip if they traveled by airplane, the guidance says.
If they’re unable to get a test, they can quarantine for 10 days before returning, unless they have COVID19 symptoms, including a temperature over 100.3 degrees. The Diocese of Palm Beach oversees all Catholic schools in Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River counties.
The Archdiocese of Miami, which oversees Catholic schools in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties, is not as strict.
As long as a student wore a mask and social-distanced while traveling, they do not need to quarantine before returning to school, according to Archdiocese spokeswoman Mary Ross Agosta. If those guidelines were not followed, the students must quarantine before returning to school, but she did not know details of those rules.
Gelo said the Palm Beach Diocese will relax the rules when safe.
“Hopefully, as the vaccines become more readily available and people choose to be vaccinated, our communities will become safer and restrictions will be lifted,” Gelo said.