Community Response to COVID-19

UPDATED COVID-19 QUARANTINE AND ISOLATION GUIDANCE

Guidance for COVID-19 Prevention for Students, Teachers and Staff in Child Care, K-12 Schools, and Day Camp Settings

The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) provides the following guidance for children, teachers, and staff in child care, K-12 schools, and camp settings. This revised guidance outlines that quarantine is no longer routinely recommended for asymptomatic individuals after exposure to COVID-19 infected individuals. In general masks are not routinely recommended in these settings, indoors or outdoors, except during isolation as specified below. Any individual who wishes to continue to mask, including those who face higher risk from COVID-19, may do so as an option. Masking is never recommended in these settings while the individual is eating, drinking, sleeping, or for children under the age of 2.

Isolation and Quarantine Guidance

  • Symptomatic persons (regardless of vaccination status) should begin isolation at home and undergo testing as recommended by their healthcare providers. The day symptoms began should be counted as day 0.
  • Persons who test positive (regardless of vaccination status) should isolate themselves at home for at least 5 days. If they are asymptomatic or symptoms are resolving and they have been fever-free for 24 hours, they may return to programming after Day 5, provided:
    • If the individual is able to mask, they should do so through Day 10.
    • If the individual is unable or unwilling to mask during this time (including children under age 2), VDH recommends a negative test on or after Day 6 in order to return to programming OR the person should remain home through day 10.
    • Schools with the resources to do so may consider offering rapid testing on-site to symptomatic individuals and/or distributing at-home rapid antigen test kits for testing at home. If a student has becomes sick at school, arrange for the student to be picked up, while the student waits in a separate isolation room/area.
  • For exposed but asymptomatic persons (regardless of vaccination status), quarantine is no longer recommended for the above settings. These individuals may continue to attend programming as long as they remain asymptomatic.
    • Exposure is defined as being within 6 feet of a person who has COVID-19 for a total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period, or having direct contact with respiratory secretions from an infected person.
    • Masks: Students/staff that attend programming during this time may consider wearing a mask around others indoors until Day 10.
    • Testing: Schools may use Test to Stay protocols and VDH testing resources to support this testing.
    • If a student or staff person in this group has ongoing household exposure to a person with COVID-19, VDH recommends students, families and staff consider more frequent testing; please see Test to Stay protocols for more information.
  • If the school or facility is experiencing an outbreak of COVID-19 that has been difficult to control or is unusual in size or scope, regional and local epidemiologists may apply professional judgment and recommend traditional quarantine and isolation standards be applied until the situation is stabilized.

The following documents will be updated accordingly in conjunction with this guidance: