Louisiana relaxes quarantine rules for schools

BATON ROUGE, La. — Louisiana’s health department Monday loosened its coronavirus quarantine guidance for schools and workplaces to match the latest recommendations from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention but is keeping more rigid guidance in place for prisons and nursing homes.

The Department of Health’s guidelines suggest people who have come in close contact with someone infected with the coronavirus can resume normal activity — including attendance for in-person classroom instruction — after 10 days if no symptoms have emerged or after seven days if they test negative for the virus.

That dovetails with the CDC’s adjustments to its recommendations last week, which were decreased from a 14-day quarantine period.

“Louisiana will be adopting the updated CDC guidance that allows for shortening quarantine,” health department spokesperson Aly Neel said. “The 14-day quarantine is still the gold standard and is still recommended, but it is acceptable to shorten the quarantine period.”

The state Department of Education is giving school systems the green light to start following the relaxed quarantine rules immediately at Louisiana’s 1,700 schools.

The education department follows the health department’s guidance and had sought looser rules.

“Our schools have not been found to be ‘super spreaders’ of this virus, and we’re thankful for this,” Louisiana Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley said in a statement.