close contacts – Royal Kazaar

Contact Tracing Protocol March 2022

Willie S. Morrissey — Mon, 14 Mar 2022 15:03:23 +0000

Updated by Director of Student Health, Approved by CIRT

March 14, 2022 By Maureen Zambito

WEST LIBERTY, W.Va., March 14, 2022 – Please find below updated contact tracing guidelines as approved by the West Liberty University Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT) and following CDC and Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department best practices.

Definition of terms

Quarantine – separation from exposed people
Isolation – separation from infected ipeople, even without symptoms
Close contact in higher education – within 6 feet of someone for a cumulative total of 15 minutes or more in a 24 hour period, regardless of masking practices.

Students/faculty/staff should report if they are diagnosed with COVID-19 or if they were named close contact of a positive case of COVID-19 using the positive report form linked here.

If you test positive for COVID-19 (isolate)

Everyone, regardless of their vaccination status:

Stay home for 5 days. If you are a student residing on campus and cannot return home to self-isolate, WLU will attempt to provide you with self-isolation space based on availability.
Complete the positive report form, indicating that you have tested positive.
Inform your close contacts of the possible exposure (contacts see info below)
Inform your professors that you cannot attend classes in person.
If you tested off-campus, upload a copy of your positive test result showing your name and test date to the Student Health Portal. Home tests will not be accepted at this time.
If you have symptoms and your symptoms are gone or greatly resolved after 5 days, you can leave isolation. If you have a fever, you should continue to self-isolate until your fever goes away. Raised
Health Services will endeavor to contact you before your isolation ends and send you a written release of isolation.
You will be advised to continue wearing a mask around others for another 5 days.
Athletes must be seen by Athletic Training before resuming sport participation.

If you have been exposed to someone with Covid-19 (quarantine)
I. If you:

have been boosted Where
Completed primary series of Pfizer or Moderna vaccine in the last 5 months Where
Completed primary series of J&J vaccine in the last 2 months

Then you should:

Wear a mask around others for 10 days
Test on Day 5. If you are a student, you can contact Student Health Services to schedule a free COVID test at 304-336-8049, Monday through Friday from 7 p.m. to 3 p.m. or you can test at an off-campus location and upload results to the Student Health Portal. Employees should request a test at one of the local testing sites, such as Doctors Urgent Care or Roxby Labs.

If you:

Completed Pfizer or Moderna primary vaccine series more than 5 months ago and is not boosted Where
Completed the first streak of J&J over 2 months ago and is not boosted Where
Are not vaccinated

Then you should:

Stay home for 5 days. After that, continue wearing a mask around others for another 5 days.

Fill in the positive report form, specifying that you are a direct contact
Inform your teachers that you cannot attend classes in person
Test on Day 5. You can contact Student Health Services to schedule a free COVID test at 304-336-8049, Monday through Friday 7-3 p.m. or you can test at an off-campus location and upload the results to the student health portal. . Employees should request a test at one of the local testing sites, such as Doctors Urgent Care or Roxby Labs.

If you develop symptoms, get tested and stay home

NOTE: Family Contacts are people who share a living space with someone diagnosed with COVID-19. This includes bedrooms, bathrooms, living rooms, kitchens, etc. This also includes roommates in on-campus residence halls, apartments and houses, and roommates in on-campus halls of residence. Family contacts Homework quarantine if exposed to the case.

If the contact can not separated from the case inside the home, the contact should be quarantined for the case’s (minimum) 5-day isolation period plus an additional 5 days. The contact will then have to wear a mask for an additional 5 days.

The separation requirements are as follows:

The case should never be in the same room as household members.
The case cannot share plates, cups, dishes or phones with household members.
The case should have its own bathroom. Not possible? Housekeeping should do daily cleaning.

If household contacts develop symptoms of COVID-19, they should get tested.

*The protocol is subject to change

Sources:

Scott Morrison says Covid close contact isolation rule ‘redundant’, more mobile homes on the way for NSW flood victims

Willie S. Morrissey — Sat, 12 Mar 2022 06:28:00 +0000

Hello, Mostafa Rachwani with you this Saturday morning, to tell you the news of the day.

We begin with the ongoing flood cleanup in New South Wales and South East Queensland, with a declaration of national emergency made late Friday evening allowing the Federal Government to access more funds and resources .

The statement also comes as assistance to 12 NSW LGAs is extended until March, with many flood-affected communities still struggling to get back on their feet.

Meanwhile, moderate flooding is still occurring on the Hawkesbury River in North Richmond and Windsor, although floodwaters have receded from their peak earlier in the week.

People are still advised not to travel to western Sydney or the Blue Mountains, with severe thunderstorms forecast for the weekend.

In Covid news, the national cabinet is considering moving towards scrapping quarantine rules for close contacts, amid concerns surrounding a new sub-variant of Omicron.

The SMH also reports that NSW Health has recommended the reintroduction of a mask mandate, along with a return to density limits and a ban on singing and dancing.

The report comes as NSW is set to hit 25,000 daily cases due to the spread of the new subvariant, and with recall levels still lagging behind.

But NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard told the Herald he was “not at all keen” on reintroducing the rules, calling them a “last resort”.

All eyes will be on the growing Covid numbers, and we’ll bring you all the titles as they arrive.

COVID-19 close contact rules for WA schools updated as parents and guardians avoid quarantine

Willie S. Morrissey — Sun, 06 Mar 2022 22:28:03 +0000

New rules have been introduced for close contacts linked to COVID-19 cases in Western Australian schools.

The changes come after the state recorded another day of more than 2,000 infections on Sunday.

Based on updated public health advice, the new rules mean that parents and caregivers are no longer required to self-quarantine when providing care to a child identified as a close contact with a COVID case. -19.

Depending on the needs of the child, a parent or caregiver may still need to stay home to care for them during their quarantine.

WA Chief Health Officer Andy Robertson said the changes would mean less disruption for families.

“These rules have been introduced to minimize the impact on families when children are identified as close contacts, including allowing siblings who have not been identified as close contacts to continue attending school.” , did he declare.

Families still need to be vigilant

The WA Health Department said families should take extra precautions and monitor themselves for symptoms.

These precautions include minimizing physical contact with close contact, sleeping separately from close contact, using a separate bathroom if possible, washing hands thoroughly, cleaning surfaces with disinfectant or a diluted bleach solution, covering coughs and sneezes and wear a mask in common areas. or taking care of household members.

Andy Robertson says siblings not identified as close contacts can continue to attend school.(ABC News: Keane Bourke)

Dr Robertson also said people should reduce interactions with vulnerable family members as much as possible during the close contact quarantine period.

“Families who have a child at home under quarantine due to close contact should minimize non-essential interactions with family members who are elderly, immunocompromised, or have medical conditions such as heart, lung or kidneys,” he said.

Constant changes in the “bumpy start” of the year

As COVID-19 continues to spread through the community and across schools across WA, Education Minister Sue Ellery admitted it has been a bumpy start to the year.

“It’s disturbing, but it’s handled calmly and methodically,” she said late last month.

With case numbers rising, schools are urged to manage their own contact tracing as public health contact tracers focus on high-risk sites like aged care, hospitals, police and essential services.

Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson told parliament it was “standard public health progress”.

While the opposition criticized the move, Armando Giglia, head of the WA Secondary School Executives Association, said it would reduce delays between people testing positive and being able to report that information.

“Schools are just able to respond more quickly … instead of having to wait for Health to do contact tracing,” he said.

“They can actually make choices at school and send communication much earlier.”

Qantas deal launched after WA border opened

In another COVID-related announcement, the WA Government and Qantas have launched a two-for-one return airfare deal for travelers from Eastern states heading west.

Special rates are available from now until Friday, unless sold out before then.(ABC News: Brendan Esposito)

Tourism Minister Roger Cook said the promotion would allow people to travel to WA from Sydney, Brisbane or Melbourne for $299 per person, when booking a return economy class flight for two passengers or more with a minimum total spend of $598.

Howell schools are no longer tracking COVID-19 cases

Willie S. Morrissey — Fri, 11 Feb 2022 08:00:00 +0000

HOWELL, NJ — School districts in New Jersey have begun announcing changes to their existing COVID-19 protocols as the state’s mask mandate ends March 7. Among them are Howell Township Public Schools, which recently announced a halt to COVID-19 contact tracing efforts.

On Wednesday, Feb. 9, Howell Township Public Schools Superintendent Joseph Isola announced that beginning Thursday, the school district would no longer be looking for contracts. This means that close contacts at school will no longer be identified and will have to be quarantined.

“However, symptomatic individuals, close household contacts, and those who test positive for COVID-19 will still need to follow appropriate exclusion protocols,” Isola said in a letter to parents in the district.

Howell will also transition to a mask-optional environment in accordance with Governor Murphy’s recent announcement. In the same letter, Isola wrote that the remote learning program would only become available again for students in grades 3-8.

“We are committed to providing a safe learning environment for all individuals and we will monitor available data relating to COVID-19. We will maintain good hygiene and safety protocols, such as physical distancing wherever possible,” Isola continued.

Any additional changes to the district’s COVID-19 protocols will be updated as needed throughout the remainder of the school year.

What Really Triggered WA’s “Close Contact” Changes

Willie S. Morrissey — Tue, 08 Feb 2022 03:57:20 +0000

Under mounting pressure from major industry groups, schools, health care worker lobbies and the state media, Mr. McGowan took advantage of his government’s vague definitions to pull the trigger on a transition.

The Prime Minister said emphatically on Monday that the changes were not happening due to community pressure, despite the fact that hundreds of pupils and teachers and their families had to spend 14 days in self-isolation when several schools have recorded cases. Several mining sites had also been affected by COVID-19 in recent weeks.

Mr McGowan pointed to how WA went from nine community cases from January 28 to January 26 on Monday to justify the change.

“It’s a 150% increase,” he said. “On top of that we had a number of people who came over the weekend [because of a February 5 easing of state entry requirements].

“There are therefore 10,000 people passing through the airport, 2,000 others through the road border.

“While these people are required to self-quarantine – they will be monitored by a G2G pass, they will have testing and other requirements on them – we expect there will be leaks of this.

“Opening ourselves up to more risk means the virus will spread faster; given our low case numbers for so long, this may come as a shock to some people.

The rise in cases from nine to 26 is not why WA introduced the rules, although 22 cases were recorded on January 29 and cases fell to 13 on Tuesday.

And health officials have not detailed any further “leaks” of self-isolating arrivals, even though thousands of people have been doing so safely for more than a month.

Despite Mr McGowan’s protests the change in close contact was not prompted by community pressure, Dr Robertson, in his February 6 health advice to the Prime Minister, made it clear that the old rules n were more applicable and something had to give.

“Given the increasing number of WA cases, especially in large wards, the number of people who need to quarantine as close or casual contacts is now disproportionate to the risk,” he said. .

“A change to the quarantine period will foster confidence within the community and industry that WA is moving towards a transition to ‘living with COVID’ and should improve public engagement and trust.

“This will have great benefits for the industry by allowing workers who have traveled to WA to start their jobs earlier.”

Dr Robertson also wrote that the community would be more willing to cooperate with contact tracing efforts with less onerous quarantine requirements.

He cited several studies and noted how a recent survey by the Federal Department of Health found that only 6% of the 1,382 cases of COVID-19 that entered Australia, over an unknown period, tested positive for the first time. after seven days of quarantine.

Studies have emerged since January indicating that Omicron only took three days to incubate.

Why the government didn’t go ahead with the rule change sooner is a bit of a puzzle.

Australian Medical Association WA President Mark Duncan-Smith, who has been one of many voices calling for reduced periods of isolation for close contacts, said science has already underlined the need for a seven-day quarantine rather than keeping people locked up unnecessarily. at the top.

“It makes for an incongruous policy that sort of approaches bureaucratic hypocrisy when you punish children with a week of unnecessary isolation but still have nightclubs open,” he said.

Dr. Robertson said at Monday’s press conference that the state has been successful in suppressing Omicron so far with the rules it has, but regardless of that fact, the increase in cases will increase exponentially very soon and in a few days.

“Nobody notices the doubling at first,” he said.

“But if you look at the numbers, unfortunately more and more of these cases are locally acquired, more and more of these cases are unrelated, so we expect in the next few days that our numbers will start to double.

“You’ll notice we’ll be going from 36 to 72 to 100. So we’re looking at that and putting those measures in preemptively as we expect to get those increases in the next few days.”

There are still 27 cases under investigation for their source, but these are not considered ‘mystery cases’ as contact tracers have an idea of where they may have caught the virus from.

But Dr Robertson said it wouldn’t be long before contact tracers weren’t able to find every exposure site an infected person had been to.

The chief health officer says it is now best to recalibrate the system to focus on tracing contacts who were most at risk of contracting the disease.

The AMA WA and state opposition have called for a new reopening date, but Dr Robertson did not say when exactly a review, which is expected to take place within four weeks from January 20, would take place. actually take place.

Dr Robertson would not be determined whether the rapid uptake of booster shots – with 45% of over-18s getting triple shots, around 10% more than the health director estimated the state would be in early February – meant the state could open before winter.

WA could theoretically have around 80% of the triple of more than 16 cohorts bitten around March 13, but authorities say they are not simply linking an opening to vaccination rates.

The government also won’t say when tougher restrictions will be introduced, although it said similar measures in South Australia will come with fewer cases than that state brought them to.

But judging by how quickly WA stopped holding its boundary and introducing new contact protocols, it probably won’t be long.

Mr McGowan has tried to bring home the number of deaths in other states lately, but on Monday he also told WA not to panic.

“Western Australians should take a higher workload seriously, but that is not cause for panic. Not at all,” he said.

“We prepared for this, keep going, keep working, support your local businesses.

“Be reasonable and be careful. If you are sick, stay home and get tested. Register on the sites and check the exhibition sites. Wear your mask and, if you haven’t already, get vaccinated for the third time.

“We can minimize the disruption, I am determined not to make the mistakes that other states and other countries have made.”

Our latest news alert will be notify you important breaking news as it happens. Get it here.

The COVIDSafe app was designed to help contact tracers. We analyzed the numbers to see what really happened

Willie S. Morrissey — Sat, 05 Feb 2022 03:28:00 +0000

At the start of the pandemic, the COVIDSafe app was designed as a tool to improve contact tracing. And a multimedia campaign promoted it as helping to find more COVID contacts faster.

Today, almost two years after its launch in April 2020, we publish in Lancet Public Health our assessment of the effectiveness and usefulness of the app in New South Wales.

We analyzed data from 619 recorded COVID cases in NSW aged over 12 and their contacts between May and November 2020. We also surveyed contact tracers to find out if they found the app useful.

Our analysis showed that the app did not add much value to the existing conventional contact tracing system.

A total of 22% of cases used the app. Most (61%) of the contacts registered by the app as “close contacts” turned out not to be epidemiologically linked to a case. The app only detected 15% of true close contacts identified by conventional contact tracing.

In total, COVIDSafe detected only 17 additional true close contacts in New South Wales during the six-month evaluation period.

This has resulted in substantial additional work for contact tracers and overall has not made a significant contribution to the COVID response in NSW.

Read more: From COVID control to chaos – what now for Australia? Two paths are open to us

Tracing takes time

Interviewing new cases to identify, trace and isolate their close contacts is a critical public health activity. But that takes time, and contact tracers can be quickly overwhelmed when the number of cases increases.

Digital contact tracing apps were enthusiastically adopted at the start of the COVID pandemic in many countriesincluding Australia.

Like many other tracing apps, COVIDSafe uses smartphones’ built-in Bluetooth feature to exchange signals between phones.

The duration, frequency and transmission strength of these “digital handshakes” are used to determine whether two smartphone users have come into “close contact” with each other.

Poor ability to correctly detect and identify close contacts

During our study period, less than a quarter of all cases used the app. That’s half the proportion of the general Australian public who have done so.

Of the cases that used the app, many did not have a single contact recorded by the app. For others, contact tracers were unable to access app data.

Contact tracers could use app data for 32 (5%) of 619 cases during our study period. Of these cases, only 79 (39%) of the 205 contacts recorded by the app as “close contacts” could be verified as true close contacts. This suggests a low positive predictive value of the app.

Here are examples of fake close contacts recorded by the app:

neighbors in different apartments in apartment buildings
office workers in adjoining rooms
customers from nearby restaurants
people waiting in separate cars at drive-through COVID testing clinics.

The vast majority (85%) of close contacts identified by conventional contact tracing were not detected by the app, indicating low sensitivity.

Some additional contacts detected

In the six months of our study, there were only 17 true close contacts identified by COVIDSafe who would otherwise have been missed – a tiny fraction of the more than 25,300 close contacts detected and tracked through conventional contact tracing in New South Wales during the same period.

None of those 17 contacts have tested positive. COVIDSafe therefore did not contribute to preventing new exposures in New South Wales during our evaluation period.

Read more: Free rapid antigen tests make economic sense for governments, our analysis shows

Technological defects

Contact tracers didn’t find the app easy to use. Some said the app doesn’t seem to work as reliably on all types of phones. The number of contacts on iPhones was grossly underestimated, while those on Android phones were overestimated.

Contact tracers have also noted the app’s apparent inability to properly save contacts unless it’s open. This could explain the large number of cases without any contact recorded in our study.

The process of matching close contacts identified by the app with those identified during case interviews was considered time-consuming, especially since most of the contacts detected by the app were not actually close contacts.

Staff interviewed said it could easily overwhelm the contact tracing system if the number of cases had been higher, paradoxically reducing the usefulness of the app when it was needed most.

Overall, contact tracers’ perceptions of the app ranged from “not having much impact” to being an extra step that increased the workload without adding much value.

The app identified 17 contacts that would otherwise have been missed.
Image AAP/Scott Barbour

Little added value at high costs

In our study, COVIDSafe did not make a significant contribution to the COVID response in New South Wales in 2020. Instead, the app created a high workload without any clear benefit.

This contrasts with the 7.7 million Australian dollars he cost to develop and run COVIDSafe until the end of April 2021, with estimated maintenance between $60,000 and $75,000 per month since.

The arrival of the highly transmissible variant of Omicron at the end of 2021 in Australia, coinciding with the lifting of most public health restrictions, has led to a massive increase in the number of cases, forcing a series of major adjustments in the search for contacts.

Read more: Australia has all but ditched the COVIDSafe app in favor of QR codes (so be sure to check in)

In most parts of Australia, contact tracing now plays a very limited role in controlling COVID. Nevertheless, it is likely to stay a key public health intervention for infectious diseases in the future.

For digital contact tracing apps to be effective and useful, it will be important to involve contact tracers when designing the system, testing the underlying technology under real-world conditions, and evaluating the app regularly. after deployment.

Dr Anthea Katelaris, a public health physician who worked at the Western Sydney Local Health District Public Health Unit at the time of the study, co-authored the research referenced in this article.

Without a Trace: Contact tracers miss two Omicron cases, system shortcomings are highlighted

Willie S. Morrissey — Tue, 25 Jan 2022 20:44:00 +0000

Despite government assurances that contact tracing was nearly foolproof, the Omicron outbreak quickly highlights the shortcomings of the system, writes Matthew Scott.

TO ANALYSE: The first signs of contact tracers unable to track the burden of new positive Covid cases in the community have emerged.

Two cases from the Omicron outbreak underwent testing and received positive test results without hearing from the contact tracing team.

The cases were an Air NZ worker from the Auckland flight to Nelson and a kitchen worker from Summerset Retirement Village in Flatbush, where a positive case among staff has now led to a mini-lockdown for residents.

READ MORE:
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* Covid-19: Cafe owner urges locals not to abandon businesses affected by Omicron

Jenny Evans/Getty Images

With cases already difficult for them to follow, this phase of the pandemic is proving more difficult for contact tracers.

Contact tracers are responsible for identifying potential contacts of a positive case and contacting them to provide advice on testing and self-isolation.

If people don’t log in or leave contact details when they visit what become places of interest, tracing work can be like finding a needle in a haystack.

Writing in Newsroom last week, University of Otago epidemiologist Amanda Kvalsvig warned: ‘We can expect contact tracing to drop pretty quickly.

And indeed, on Monday, the Department of Health reported that the contact tracing team had a busy day looking for anyone who might have been near a suspected case of Omicron.

However, a Department of Health spokesperson said the cases were not existing close contacts of other cases, meaning they were not known until they tested positive.

Yet both were listed as having come into contact with the Nelson-Tasman family. Both cases were documented as having been at places of interest, one on the same flight and the other at the same wedding.

The lapses run counter to government assurances towards the end of last year that contact tracing could handle the summer surge, with a Department of Health spokesman saying the system could handle 1,000 new cases daily or 6,000 contacts per day.

Chief Health Officer Dr Ashley Bloomfield conceded no doubts about the system. “I’m confident in our contact tracing capability, acknowledging again that the way we use it has changed to be very focused on those very close, close contacts,” he told Newsroom in November.

The problem is that an event like a wedding or several hours enclosed in the tight confines of an airplane cabin with limited ventilation can produce a lot of very close contacts.

An Air NZ spokesperson reported that an air crew employee had been tested after developing symptoms, with no communication from contact tracers.

Similarly, the Summerset Retirement Village kitchen worker was reportedly invited to the wedding at the Totara Event Center in New Lynn on Saturday, Jan. 15, attended by a family who had flown in from the Nelson area.

The first family members to attend the wedding tested positive Thursday morning. But it wasn’t until Friday night that the worker was told by another wedding attendee and went to get tested on his own. Although he works with vulnerable older people, he was not approached by contact tracers until told of the positive result on Saturday.

A spokesperson for Summerset Retirement Village said the company acted immediately after hearing the worker’s positive test result by deep-cleaning the kitchen and closing the village and care center completely.

More than 300 Covid tests were then carried out among staff, care homes and residents of the village.

As public health strategy evolves, contact tracing is set to become less important, with Covid Response Minister Chris Hipkins even noting yesterday that at some point suspected cases won’t even be asked out and to get an exam.

It portends a new phase of the pandemic for New Zealand, where halting the spread has been replaced by slowing the spread and reliable tools of the past two years like contact tracing and MIQ are replaced by booster injections and self-isolation.

The difference is that the latter is much more about personal responsibility – the responsibility to keep your immunity in good shape with the best tools at hand, and the responsibility to keep yourself away from others if you wake up sneezing. and coughing.

Tuesday’s Department of Health statement appears to be intended to lower expectations about the effectiveness of contact tracing in this new era.

One of the new hotspots is a busy Sunday night party at the Pukekohe Indian Hall.

“The Auckland Regional Public Health Department believes a large number of people attended this event,” the statement from the Department of Health said. “Anyone in this location at the relevant times is urged to get tested immediately and self-isolate until a negative result is returned.”

Tracking down everyone who attended the Pukekohe event wouldn’t be easy if everyone didn’t scan.

But if the government’s indications are to be believed, the days of people being searched by places visited as the first line of defense against the virus may be coming to an end.

Harris continues LA visit despite staff contact with COVID-positive colleague

Willie S. Morrissey — Sun, 23 Jan 2022 14:42:23 +0000

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Kamala Harris. Photo by John Schreiber.

Vice President Kamala Harris is continuing her visit to the Los Angeles area on Sunday despite several of her staff having been in close contact with an advance team member who later tested positive for COVID-19.

“On Friday evening, while driving from the Los Angeles airport to the hotel in Los Angeles, several members of the Vice President’s staff came into close contact with a forward team member who has since tested positive for the COVID,” according to a White House official quoted by reporter Rob Crilly on Saturday.

“No member of the media was in close contact with this individual and the Vice President was not in close contact with this individual. Staff members will not be traveling with the Vice President on Monday. , but staff members who were close contacts are not going to travel with her.

Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, have been in Los Angeles since late Friday afternoon for a weekend at their Brentwood home.

Shortly after arriving, Harris joined Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Governor Gavin Newsom in San Bernardino for a briefing on state and federal efforts to prevent and mitigate wildfires.

At a news conference at the U.S. Forest Service’s Del Rosa Firehouse in San Bernardino, she announced plans for the federal government to provide California with $600 million to help the state recover from a a destructive wildfire season and prepare for the same in the future. .

“It’s about recognizing that we cannot, as a government or as a society or as concerned people, react only in reaction to a moment of harm or danger,” Harris said. “We also need to be able to use technology, common sense and the expertise of people on the ground to understand that we have the tools to predict these wildfires in advance.”

The money is part of a $1.3 billion set aside from the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill approved by the US Congress last year to help local communities clean up hazardous materials, restoring forests and repairing infrastructure damaged by forest fires.

“Since we know climate change is going to increase the likelihood of these mega wildfires here in California and the western United States,” Harris said, “it’s important to start thinking ahead and come out in front of these crises rather than just being in a reactive pose.

While Harris was in San Bernardino on Friday, Emhoff participated in a service activity with AmeriCorps at a Los Angeles-area food bank where he spoke with volunteers and helped pack bags of food before attending a private meeting with local legal aid providers.

The couple have no further public appearances scheduled for the remainder of their weekend in Southland. They are scheduled to return to Washington, DC on Monday.

Harris continues LA visit despite staff contact with COVID-positive colleague was last modified: January 23, 2022 through Contributing Editor

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Massena Central School Board Member Questions New Contact Tracing and Quarantine Protocols | Education

Willie S. Morrissey — Sun, 23 Jan 2022 08:00:00 +0000

MASSENA — A member of the Massena Central School Board says he is unhappy with the new protocols regarding the school’s role in contact tracing and quarantining and the impact it could have on education of a student.

Superintendent Patrick H. Brady told council members Thursday evening that the state Department of Health issued new guidelines last week on pandemic protocols, including contact tracing and quarantine. He also provided a chart for determining when to isolate or quarantine based on symptoms and vaccination status.

“Yesterday the regional superintendents met with public health and discussed the new guidelines. Today I met with our board of directors and the chief planning nurse here,” Mr Brady said.

New information for parents and staff “about what it will look like in the future” was due out on Friday, he said.

He said one of the biggest changes from the new guidelines was that the state DOH and the St. Lawrence County Public Health Department would no longer conduct contact tracing.

“That means people exposed to COVID-19, look at the seating charts and come in and nail it down to a few students and make these kinds of one-on-one calls. It will be more of a general statement that there have been cases at the ninth or third year level and then releasing that information,” Brady said.

Board member Kevin F. Perretta asked why the district would want to continue to follow these guidelines.

He said he looked closely at the corresponding policy “voted against because I thought it was rubbish if you want to look back.”

“I didn’t like that we had the ability to take away a student’s right to education when they sneeze because it’s a symptom,” Perretta said. “Ultimately, it’s a symptom. That’s where we went.

“I think it’s been well established through this pandemic that schools have the ability to do that, to keep students safe, and we’ve had that under communicable diseases,” Brady said.

He said the guidelines followed by the district came from the county public health department.

“In fact, they’re really asking us now that schools should at least let parents know if they’re a close contact,” Brady said.

“So are we going to send them home if they show up and they’re a close contact?” asked Mr. Perretta.

“We are moving to self-reporting, more self-reporting by families rather than contact tracing,” Mr Brady said.

Mr Perretta said he was trying to ‘bring it down to what we are allowed to do and not allowed to do by policy and/or law’.

“I know what we did. They just took away what we were cluttered with before,” he said. “So that’s why I’m asking, why are we going to keep doing this?”

Test kits, which were distributed to families who requested them, could play a role in determining a student’s status before coming to school.

“So we can send that test home with a student and have them tested to see if they have COVID so they can go back to school,” he said.

Board member Loren Fountaine said sending test kits home to the families of someone who might be a close contact seemed like “a pretty solid solution”.

“It’s only if you have symptoms, because otherwise we don’t have the right to make them do anything,” Mr Perretta said.

” I’m not saying that. I’m just saying it’s a responsible thing to do if you’ve been in close contact to get tested,’ Mr Fountaine said. “Of course, children have a right to public education. People also have the right not to be affected by someone on purpose, but I’ve seen people say, “Go spread it.”

“We have to be careful in the sense that there is a part of our population that, if they get this, it’s not just the flu. It is life threatening,” Mr. Fountaine added. “We can’t just say, ‘Well, get the flu and get over it. I think that’s a very simplistic way of putting it. Most people will be fine with it. »

Mr. Perretta said he was not trying to downplay the issue.

“What I’m looking at is what our role is here. We are here to represent the children, not the elderly,” Mr. Perretta said. “If you want to see what our role is, what has happened to the children in the last two years? It will last a long, long time. If you look at what we’re doing with these kids and what’s happening, how are we going to get out of this? All the data shows that you can’t catch them once you lose them.

Mr Brady said the district is working on it.

“We have worked and our staff have worked, our administrators, our nurses to keep the doors open all year round. Believe me, there have been times (the neighborhood could have closed) because of quarantine issues. Now, with 92 cases at school last week and 46 the week before and all close contacts, we are just fighting to add staff to stay. But, we fought to keep it open,” Mr. Brady said. “I see this as a progression. We are going in the right direction. We are starting and we have learned a lot through this process.

St. Lawrence County Public Health has stopped contact tracing; isolation and quarantine move to an honor system | Public Service News

Willie S. Morrissey — Sun, 23 Jan 2022 03:14:14 +0000

CANTON – Due to the increase in COVID-19 cases, the St. Lawrence County Public Health Department will stop contact tracing and investigating cases except those they identify as the most vulnerable populations. These include older adults, school-aged children, people in daycares, nursing homes, health care facilities and other congregate settings.

Additionally, Isolation and Quarantine are moving to an honor system. The department said in a news release that those who test positive should self-isolate and notify any close contacts who may have been exposed.

“You may not receive a call from St. Lawrence County/New York State Public Health if you have tested positive or been exposed to COVID-19. However, you will still be notified by where you were tested of your results,” the department said. “People who have tested positive will be required to self-isolate and anyone who has been exposed must self-quarantine.”

County officials cite New York state’s “evolving priorities” as the reason for the change.

“We are seeing a higher number of new infections every day than we have seen at any time throughout the pandemic and staff are unable to reach all cases and contacts in a timely manner. In an effort to increase the effectiveness of contact tracing and our response, our department will transition to a self-directed isolation and quarantine process,” said Jolene F. Munger, acting county director of public health, in a press release.

The county has reported 200 to 300 new cases of COVID-19 per day so far in 2022.

Anyone notified that they are a close contact should self-quarantine, unless exempt, and monitor for symptoms. They should get tested on the fifth day after exposure, or sooner if symptoms develop.

For more information on who is considered a close contact, see the State Department of Health’s Contact Tracing and Case Investigation Online FAQ at wdt.me/covidFAQ.

Employers, schools, daycares, and health care facilities should work with staff, students, and customers to help them identify and report exposures that occur in their facilities. For schools, this may mean a change to general notification that a student in a class has tested positive and, in some situations, students may still be excluded from school, the department said.

As COVID-19 cases continue to rise in the county and across the country, health officials say it’s vital that all residents continue to follow what they call “the six pillars of prevention” to slow the spread of COVID-19.

The six pillars are self-isolating and notifying close contacts of a positive result; self-quarantine in case of exposure; wear a mask in public; hand washing; staying home when sick; get tested if sick or exposed; and get vaccinated and boosted.

Anyone who is not vaccinated or strengthened can visit the county’s website, www.stlawco.org/Departments/PublicHealth, or call 315-386-2325 for a list of vaccination clinics and to schedule an appointment. .

“We must continue to apply the six pillars of prevention to protect others and prevent the spread when we test positive for COVID-19,” Ms. Munger said. “The basic isolation and quarantine processes do not change; however, it will now emphasize personal responsibility to do the right thing and SLCPH would like to thank those who complied with public health orders.

People who have been notified that they have tested positive for COVID-19 can submit an online isolation request form at wdt.me/covidForms or visit the county website.

To determine the length of isolation or quarantine, visit the county’s website. For specific guidance for people living in communities and healthcare workers, see the state DOH website.

Anyone who tests positive at home should submit results online at shorturl.at/glmDFor, call 315-286-2325 or email SLCCOVID19SharedMailbox@stlaw.org.