1-6-22 COVID-19 Update includes updated mitigations from the Rockland County Dept. of Health on quarantine/isolation protocols:
Dear Nyack Learning Community,
School Executives from each Rockland County school district and Rockland BOCES today met with officials from the Rockland County Department of Health (RCDOH) to review and discuss a variety of urgent COVID-19-related matters, including updated quarantine and isolation protocols, contact tracing requirements and the "test to stay" mitigation strategy being used in neighboring counties.
Nyack Public Schools has implemented the 5-day rule for our employees, regardless of vaccination to return to our schools after testing positive for COVID-19. We will be implementing this for our students starting on Monday, January 10, 2022. The 5-day rule is dependent on the date of symptom onset or date of positive COVID-19 test.
Students and employees must meet the following criteria to return to Nyack Public Schools following a five-day quarantine:
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No fever for at least 24 hours, unmedicated
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Resolution or reduction of symptoms
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Students and employees must wear an appropriate face covering indoors and outdoors - at all time
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This new protocol does not apply to immunocompromised students and staff members.
Implementing this quarantine reduction from ten days to five days, regardless of vaccination status, will allow students and staff to return to our schools more quickly after testing positive for COVID-19.
With regard to the "test to stay" approach, RCDOH has placed several complex requirements on local school districts, which could make it extremely challenging to implement with fidelity and equity across our school community. As announced during today's meeting, county health officials are prohibiting at-home testing to be included in a "test to stay" program citing an inability to guarantee accuracy of test results. Other barriers include a county mandate that testing be performed by licensed healthcare professionals – in schools – prior to the start of each school day and that “test to stay” does not extend to athletics and extracurricular activities in our schools.
We will continue to review and assess the RCDOH “test to stay” mandates as we consider the viability of adopting this strategy.
