Please refer to County guidelines LINK* for all definitions of close contacts & quarantine/current isolation guidelines

1.  Isolation recommendations for staff and students

  • Anyone who tests positive, regardless of vaccination status or whether they have symptoms, should stay home for at least 5 days from the symptoms start date or positive test collection date (whichever occurred first) and return if they are fever-free for 24 hours and symptoms are resolving on Day 5. Upon return to school on Day 6 or later, wear a well-fitting mask through the full 10 days of isolation. Consider extending the masking period if symptoms do not fully resolve by Day 10.

o   Schools could consider encouraging families to perform antigen testing on or after Day 6 (prior to returning to class) for any student who previously exhibited COVID-19 symptoms or tested positive for COVID-19. People with positive tests on Day 6 can be re-tested 48 hours later. If someone still tests positive on an antigen test after 10 days, we strongly encourage that person to wear a mask for several additional days.

  • We recommend that schools which require return testing should make antigen test kits available to families.

o   The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that all children who test positive for a SARS-CoV-2 infection should have at least one follow-up conversation or visit with their primary care medical home.

  • People who were diagnosed with COVID-19 in the past 90 days who subsequently develop symptoms, should contact their healthcare provider and seek testing.

o   Isolation is recommended for anyone who tests positive after a previous COVID-19 infection if the illness from the first infection has fully resolved prior to the second positive test.

  • Individuals exhibiting symptoms of fever greater than 100.4oF, sore throat, new cough, new onset runny nose or congestion, or loss of taste and smell should be sent home with instructions to test for COVID-19.

o   Test at Day 3 after symptom onset for COVID-19 – antigen tests can be negative in the early stages of infection. Taking a test on Day 1 or 2 in unreliable because false negative results are a possibility. We recommend that students who test negative not return to school until they satisfy the criteria for return to school (the first bullet point).

2.  Quarantine recommendations for school exposures

The CDC recommends that quarantine and exclusion strategies continue to be used in congregate settings like schools and childcare centers to prevent the transmission of COVID-19. Quarantine is a well-established strategy to control outbreaks of communicable diseases by disrupting the chain of transmission from one person to the next. This type of exclusion is most effective if you are able to identify those individuals at risk of developing disease based on exposure to a contagious individual and act to remove them from the remaining population as they develop disease and become contagious themselves. Without quarantine each student who becomes ill is a source of disease with a potential to propagate an outbreak.

 Use the CDC recommendations for quarantine to decide whether or not a student should be excluded based on an exposure. The most current guidance can be found on the CDC website found here.

3.  Mitigation recommendations

Closely monitor trends in the CDC COVID-19 Transmission Level and Community Level to determine which mitigation strategies are appropriate for your facilities. These metrics can be found on the St. Louis County Department of Public Health COVID webpage (link) and are updated weekly on Thursday evenings.

 A high Transmission Level in the community indicates that cases are increasing or persistently high. A high Community Level indicates a high number of cases as well as high rates of hospitalization due to COVID-19. This is an estimation of the risk to the community for severe health outcomes.

 DPH recommends that institutions prepare by establishing policies and setting thresholds that include these metrics and others, such as absence rates, to determine which mitigation strategies to deploy. Mitigation strategies that schools could consider include:

  • Masking – Masking is recommended for anyone returning from quarantine or isolation. Schools should consider the following when making a determination if school-wide or classroom-wide masking is appropriate:

o   Community and Transmission Level

o   Multiple cases in a single room

o   Indication of in-school transmission (i.e., multiple cases several rooms or linked cases)

o   School absence rates (threshold approach)

  • Ventilation - Consult with your institution’s facilities department to maximize air change and filtration. Review and consider the St. Louis County (link) and CDC (link) recommendations for ventilation in schools and childcare settings.

  • Routine and enhanced disinfection – Disinfecting high-touch surfaces can reduce the likelihood of disease transmission for many pathogens, not just COVID-19. In addition, schools may consider extending routine disinfection practices (e.g., of tests at the beginning of the day) when resources allow.

  • Hand hygiene – Especially for students in preschool or elementary school, reminders to wash hands (e.g., when first arriving, before eating, and after returning from recess) will similarly reduce disease transmission for COVID or other illnesses.

  • Respiratory etiquette – After two years of mask wearing, many students have forgotten proper respiratory etiquette (e.g., cough into your elbow). Reteaching or reinforcing good respiratory hygiene can help reduce transmission of COVID, flu, and many other illnesses.