DIOCESAN SCHOOL COVID GUIDANCE
Effective July 19, 2022
- Pursuant to VDH guidance, masks are no longer required or recommended in any school setting (indoor/outdoor) except for isolation purposes after testing positive for COVID. In those cases, persons who test positive for COVID should stay home for 5 days from the onset of symptoms or the day of a positive test. Once symptoms resolve/improve and the individual is fever-free for 24 hours, they may return on Day 6. Masks are recommended through Day 10. While a negative test is not required to return to school on Day 6, it is recommended for individuals who do not wear a mask from Day 6 through Day 10.
- Quarantine is no longer required for anyone exposed (within 6 feet for a total of 15 minutes or more over a 24 hour period or having direct contact with respiratory secretions from an infected person) to someone who has tested positive, regardless of vaccination status, so long as the exposed individual is asymptomatic. Masking is encouraged for those exposed to someone who tested positive for COVID.
- Contact tracing will only be done for those in close contact in a prolonged instructional classroom setting, not for lunch, recess, athletics, or other incidental situations. The school will only notify those individuals who were in direct close contact with the person who tested positive.
- This guidance could change at a local school level if a particular school experiences an outbreak of COVID.