Guidelines for Isolation and Quarantine 1/13/22

Dear Cranford Public Schools Community,

 

The New Jersey Department of Health (NJDOH) released new guidelines for isolation and quarantine due to Covid cases in the school setting. These guidelines take effect immediately. 

If an individual tests POSITIVE for COVID-19

• The individual will be excluded from school for at least 5 full days.

• Day 0 is the day symptoms began or the date of specimen collection.

• The individual may return to school on the 6th day and must be fever free without fever-reducing medication for at least 24 hours and symptoms must improve.

• Upon return to school, the individual must strictly wear a well-fitted mask including outdoors for the next 5 days upon their return to school.

• During lunch, students may remove their mask only while eating or drinking, and then put the mask back on whenever not actively eating or drinking.  All students will continue to distance at 6 feet while eating.

 

If an individual is SYMPTOMATIC with COVID-compatable symptoms

• The individual will be excluded from school for at least 5 days.

• Day 0 is the day symptoms began.

• The individual may return to school on the 6th day and must be fever free without fever-reducing medication for at least 24 hours and symptoms must be improving.

• If the individual is tested by a laboratory-rapid test or PCR and receives a negative result, the individual may return to school when they provide the lab test results/ report to the school nurse as long as the individual is fever free for 24 hours and additional symptoms have improved.

• Upon return to school, the individual must strictly wear a well-fitted mask including outdoors for the next 5 days upon their return to school.

 

PLEASE NOTE:

 

• An alternate diagnosis (i.e. positive strep test, influenza, ect.) absent of a negative PCR test is not acceptable for individuals who meet COVID-19 exclusion criteria to return to school earlier than the recommended exclusion timeframes.

• The negative test must be a laboratory-rapid test or PCR and CANNOT be a home-based test unless the test is medically supervised and sent to a laboratory for processing.

 

If an individual is determined to be a CLOSE CONTACT to an individual confirmed positive with COVID-19

• The individual will be excluded from school and is recommended to quarantine for 5 days after the last exposure to the confirmed positive case.

• Day 0 is the last day of close contact to the confirmed positive case.

• The individual may return to school on day 6 provided that they do not become symptomatic or test positive for COVID-19 during the exclusion period.

• If the individual becomes symptomatic or tests positive for COVID-19 during the quarantine, they should isolate and call the school nurse to update the school of their status.

• A negative test is not required as long as the individual remains without symptoms for the full 5 days.

 

PLEASE NOTE:

 

• An individual would not be excluded from school if the individual is fully vaccinated and has no symptoms (fully vaccinated = 2 weeks after a Pfizer or Moderna second dose; 2 weeks after a Johnson & Johnson single dose.), OR

• Tested positive for COVID-19 using a viral test and clinically recovered from COVID-19 in the previous 90 days, OR

• A student is further than 3 to 6 feet of an infected student, in an indoor classroom setting where both the infected student and the exposed student(s) correctly and consistently wore a well-fitted mask the entire time and has no symptoms.

 

In accordance with the New Jersey Department of Health, “close contact” is defined as someone who was within 6 feet of an infected person for a cumulative total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period starting from 2 days before illness onset (or, for asymptomatic individuals, 2 days prior to test specimen collection) until the time the individual is isolated.

 

In accordance with the updated guidance, the following is a timetable for individuals who recently tested positive for COVID.

 

 

If you have any health related questions and / or concerns, please reach out to your child’s school nurse.

 

Be well and stay safe!

Best,

Scott Rubin