NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — School preparation isn't complete without yet another plan to tackle COVID-19. The virus is sure to impact the learning environment for a third school year.
"Holy moly, let me tell you, it was crazy," said Newport News Schools Nursing Supervisor Nancy Carlson. "Everything else truly took a backseat to COVID."
But Carlson believes this year nurses and staff will get a little relief, because they no longer have to contact trace every positive case.
Close contacts no longer have to quarantine, according to the Virginia Department of Health.
"Any close contacts do not have to quarantine at this time, and if they become symptomatic themselves, then they do need to stay home," Carlson explained.
According to the state guidance, if a student or staff member tests positive, they must stay home for five consecutive days.
When they come back on day six, they should wear a mask for several more days.
If they choose not to wear a mask, VDH suggests following the CDC “test-based strategy”, which now includes two negative antigen tests after the five-day isolation, with the second test separated by 48 hours after the first.
In a Coronavirus briefing for Virginia Beach school board members, Chief Operations Officer Jack Freeman explained the one exception in which masks are not optional.
"When a student is sent to the clinic and is ill with respiratory or COVID-like symptoms, then that student must wear a mask," he said.
That student will also be sent home.
The Newport News School Division will continue to notify parents of positive cases within the schools. Some divisions across Hampton Roads will only alert parents to a cluster of cases.
Virginia Beach will no longer have a COVID dashboard.
Outside Carlson's office are newly delivered boxes of BinaxNow COVID-19 home test kits ready for schools to pick up.
"These are the ones that the grant with the VDH provides to public and private schools for free," she said.
Early last semester during the Omicron variant surge, the kits went out faster than Carlson could get them in. She expects a calmer scene this year, as the data is more promising.
"While I do think that we are going to continue to see people who test positive, and of course we are, the severity of their illness is not going to be what it was when COVID started in the end of 2019, the beginning of 2020. That will be a relief for everyone," Carlson said.
Carlson strongly encourages families to get their children vaccinated.