The Rhode Island Department of Health is cutting in half the quarantine time it recommends for students and staff who have tested positive for Covid-19 in new recommendations it sent to schools Thursday.
While acknowledging that school-aged children have seen rising case counts because of the surging Delta and Omicron variants, the guidance relaxes quarantine recommendations in an effort to keep students and teachers in school for in-person learning.
The state recommends shortening quarantine times for students and staff who test positive from 10 to five days, provided their symptoms improve. The new guidance also recommends that students and staff who are fully vaccinated do not need to quarantine if they have been identified as close contacts of someone who has tested positive as long as they don’t exhibit symptoms, though they should wear a mask around others for 10 days.
Rhode Island Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green says the changes closely align with updated Covid-prevention guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She expects the new recommendations will ease pressure on school districts facing staff shortages because of a surge in Covid cases.
“It will lessen the amount of time the kids are out of school,” Infante-Green said in a conference call with the media. “The CDC couldn’t have made this at a better time for us.”
Individual school districts determine whether to transition to remote learning. Several districts opted to go remote this week, including Coventry High School and Johnston High School.
Rhode Island saw 4,366 school-related cases of Covid-19, including 705 cases among staff, from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1, according to health department data. Just 43% of Rhode Island students eligible for the vaccines are fully vaccinated.
The state recommends schools implement the new guidelines beginning Monday.
The Public’s Radio’s Jeremy Bernfeld contributed to this story.
