Good Afternoon,
As you may have heard the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Ohio Department of Health announced a change in guidance for quarantines to close contact. The Clermont County Public Health Department adopted these guidelines late in the afternoon on Friday, December 4, 2020. The new guidance changes the quarantine period for someone who has been exposed to a positive COVID-19 case to the following:
New CDC/ODH- Close Contact Quarantine reduction guidance:
10 days- No action/testing taken by close contact person = at least 10 days from the last exposure with the positive case and symptom free
7 days- Negative test result for SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) from a sample collected on day five or later after last exposure AND stay at home for at least seven days after last exposure.
At this time Felicity Schools are not going to adopt/implement the 7day portion of the new guidance. We will, however, change from the old 14 day required quarantine to the new reduced quarantine guideline of 10 days. We are choosing not to adopt the 7day quarantine rule because I believe the multiple expectations and testing requirements add too many layers for families and the school to manage.
We will make personal phone calls to parents with quarantined students to establish new return dates based on the new guidelines. Please do not send your student back to school until you have confirmation from the school district.
I also want to ask families to be very judicious when deciding to send your student(s) to school each day. Please do not send student(s) from your household to school if anyone in your household has any of the following symptoms:
Fever
Cough
Shortness of Breath
Difficulty breathing
Loss of taste and/or smell
OR
If you or someone in your household has tested positive for COVID
OR
If you or someone in your household is waiting on COVID test results.
I know this may be challenging, but we have to work together, and for now, in a very conservative manner, in order to keep our students attending every day.
Please see the CDC/ODH guidelines included HERE.
David Gibson, Superintendent