Utah students can still go to school after direct exposure to COVID-19, health department says - Salt Lake Tribune

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Under what officials are calling “a modified quarantine,” parents will be given the choice to keep their child home or send them back to class after close contact with the contagious virus — which they can do as long as the student is not showing any symptoms and no one in their immediate household has tested positive. Teachers and staff, too, can continue to come to work with the same rules, especially in cases where there are no substitutes available.

“This will allow children to stay in the educational system and get the classroom setting that they need,” said Dr. Angela Dunn, the state’s epidemiologist, during a virtual news conference Thursday.

Dunn described the process as the same that essential employees in Utah, such as medical professionals or grocery workers, have used during the outbreak. “And it has worked,” she added.

The point is to stay open, and “in most cases,” the guidance notes, “schools do not need to close for in-person learning.”

Schools should only shut down, the health department advises, after 15 individuals have tested positive in the same timeframe (or 10% in those with less than 100 people). And then, it should be for two weeks, the incubation period of the virus. For a single classroom to go online, there would need to be three people with COVID-19.

Otherwise, schools statewide are encouraged to operate in person under the governor’s orders for this fall.

“We’re not going to sit back in the corner and wring our hands and say, ‘We can’t do anything,’” Gov. Gary Herbert added Thursday.

The health guidance for schools, a 102-page document, is the most specific direction from the state yet for reopening; previously, most planning has been left to local districts beyond some general instruction on sanitation and social distancing from the Utah Board of Education.

It comes after the governor sat down with education leaders Wednesday, including the Utah Education Association, which had called for all schools to start the year online.

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While stopping short of doing that — and without the teachers union’s support — the manual is filled largely with prevention recommendations, what to do in various scenarios, and a note about the governor’s one mandate: that students and staff in public K-12 schools wear masks.

It also makes the case for a return to schools as “critical to the long-term health and economic success of our state.” And it pushes in-person learning as the best for all students, but especially those in marginalized communities or kids without internet access.

The biggest thrust of the guidelines is on the “modified quarantine” plan, billed as a way to keep more kids in the classroom longer.

It instructs administrators not to treat cases of exposure the same as positive cases. That happened this spring when Murray School District shut down before any other in the state after students there were in contact with someone who had the virus.

It mostly doesn’t matter where a student or teacher is exposed, the document says, including whether there’s a case directly in a classroom. If they’re alerted by their local health department and told they have been in contact with someone who has tested positive, they are asked only to check for symptoms twice a day and wear a mask if they plan to come to school. Only those who test positive or live with someone who does have to stay home.

Where the “modified” part of the effort comes in is forbidding those exposed individuals from participating in sports or clubs for two weeks (even with a mask). They can go to class, but any other activities are not allowed. The guidance notes that’s because “it increases the number of people they may expose to the virus that causes COVID-19,” with most extracurriculars spanning ages and grade levels. The country has already seen the virus spread among professional sports teams.

Kids generally don’t have serious complications from the disease, but they can still carry it and pass it on to others without symptoms. And many teachers are considered at high risk for complications based on their age and health conditions.

When asked about that Thursday, Herbert insisted that “we appreciate our teachers” while acknowledging “these are challenging times.” His priority, though, he said, is returning to the classroom, doing so as safely as possible and allowing as many to participate as want to in person.

“I’m sure there’s no guarantee that it can’t be spread in schools like it could happen anywhere else,” he added. “We’re trying to mitigate and minimize the risk. … But clearly, the goal for all of us is to find a way to open up our school system.”

He pointed to his mask mandate as one of the larger efforts to keep educators and students safe, even if they’ve been exposed.

Additionally, many school districts will be holding classes online or in a combination of remote and in person, added Sydnee Dickson, the state superintendent of public instruction. She believes that will cut down on cases, especially if high-risk teachers are allowed to work at home or do a livestream in a separate classroom away from students.

“There are a lot of mitigation strategies that our schools are putting into place,” she said.

Those include adjusting recess and lunch schedules to avoid large gatherings and trying to seat students as far apart as possible. (Six feet, though, is often hard to reach in Utah’s crowded classrooms that often have more than 30 kids.) And the manual, she said, will be continuously updated.

Dunn added that staying home when sick and good hand hygiene will also go a long way.

“Everything we’re doing right now comes with some risks and benefits. And in this case, the benefit is getting kids to school,” she said.

But Heidi Matthews, the president of the Utah Education Association, doesn’t believe the health department’s document does enough to provide protection. As the leader of the state’s largest teachers union, she called earlier this week for most schools in the state to start the year online until cases of the virus decline. As of Thursday, Utah has seen nearly 40,000 positive patients.

Other parameters in the 102-page document include:

• Schools will only tell those who came in close contact with a person who tested positive of their exposure. The entire school or district will not be informed. Close contact means being closer than 6 feet to a person with COVID-19 for 15 minutes or longer.

• Schools can make a list of individuals who are considered high-risk for serious complications from the virus because of their age or health conditions. Those individuals can also be informed of a positive case if they were in the same room as the person.

• The health department suggests also moving instruction online for a specific class if three individuals there test positive.

• If a school has less than 100 individuals, only 10% need to test positive before a shut down instead of 15 people.

• While a student can go to school after exposure to the virus, the health department will not allow students who have been in direct contact with someone with COVID-19 to play sports. It notes: “It is not recommended students be allowed to participate in activities, sports, or clubs while quarantined because it increases the number of people they may expose to the virus that causes COVID-19.”

• The health department otherwise advises schools to enforce that everyone wear masks and that there be seating charts for classrooms, buses, assemblies and cafeterias so that contact tracing will be easier.

The Salt Lake Tribune will update this developing story.

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