Updated Guidance from Leavenworth County Health Department
The Leavenworth County Health Department is releasing an update for the public health guidance for K-12 schools. The guidance being updated is based on current available data and science, as well as other expert analysis regionally, and nationally. This updated guidance is and has been being utilized in neighboring county’s with successful results.
Since school has begun in our county, the Leavenworth County Health Department has worked closely with school administrators to quickly identify cases and close contacts within the schools, and to monitor the spread of COVID-19 through case and contact investigation. Leavenworth County Health Department is issuing an update to contact tracing and exclusion of contacts in a school setting. It is being revised at a local level to reflect the incentivized usage of masks within the school settings and the success of mitigation strategies in the schools. Guidance will continue to change as additional scientific evidence becomes available and the findings dictating practices expand.
Leavenworth County Health Department staff and school officials partner on contact tracing activities to ensure that transmission chains in schools or at school-related activities are broken. Moving forward utilization of the modified contact tracing and exclusion guidance can be utilized to determine close contacts of students inside schools. Provided individuals are appropriately masked inside school, they will no longer be subject to exclusion from school. High risk exposures as outlined in the guidance (i.e. high-risk sports activity, household/family/friend close-contact of a laboratory-confirmed case and no mask usage), are still subject to the 14-day quarantine and will not be allowed to return to school until the quarantine period has been completed. Leavenworth County Health Department will continue to partner with school administrators to implement and adopt mitigation techniques to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 in the school setting.
It is extremely important that we all continue to practice social distancing, practice good hygiene and respiratory etiquette, wear face masks when distancing recommendations aren’t possible to maintain and lastly, to make good decisions.
Below you will find the updated guidance from Leavenworth County Health Department.
Updated Contact Tracing and Exclusion of Contacts in a School Setting Guidance
Leavenworth County Health Department staff and school officials continues to partner on contact tracing activities to ensure that transmission chains in schools or at school-related activities are broken. School officials will only be responsible for contact tracing within the school, while Leavenworth County Health Department will be responsible for identifying and quarantining contacts outside of the school setting. Quarantining close contacts of infected individuals is a tried and true public health mitigation technique. Contact tracing should be completed the same day a school is notified (by Leavenworth County Health Department or the individual/family) of a confirmed positive COVID-19 case.
High Risk Exposures
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Anyone unmasked, especially when not distanced
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Eating breakfast/lunch/snack less than six feet apart, unless otherwise approved (by
Leavenworth County Health Department or KDHE) physical barriers are in place (i.e. Plexiglas)
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Physical exertion, in or outdoors, less than 6 feet for longer than 10 minutes
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High-risk sports, as defined by the National Federation of State High School
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Associations, include “sports that involve close, sustained contact between participants,
lack of significant protective barriers, and high probability that respiratory particles will be
transmitted between participants.”
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Playing woodwind and brass instruments without other precautions (mask, distance)
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Singing/shouting without other precautions
Low Risk Exposures
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Being in the same classroom with proper mask wearing
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On the same bus with mask wearing, ventilation, 3’ distance
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Playground, even if unmasked, (social distancing and cohorts should be maintained); this moves
into a high-risk exposure if kids have sustained contact with physical exertion for more than 10 minutes
Not considered Exposed or close contact
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Walking in the same hallway masked
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Attending class, the period after a positive individual
Wearing of Masks Exclusion Protocol
Mask wearing has been shown to be an effective way to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Individuals who are wearing masks and are in close contact (6 feet for 10 minutes or more) with an infectious individual wearing a mask is considered low risk for contracting COVID-19. Because schools have policies and monitoring capabilities for mask wearing, Leavenworth County Health Department does not recommend excluding students and staff who are close contacts of a COVID-19 positive individual, as long as masks were being worn correctly (covering nose and mouth). Individuals who were unmasked within 6 feet for 10 consecutive minutes or more or participated in a high-risk activity with a COVID-19 positive individual during their infectious period, or who were directly exposed to respiratory droplets/excretions for any amount of time, will be excluded for 14 days from their last interaction with the individual.
Exclusion of a Group
The risk of COVID-19 transmission is low if public health mitigation techniques such as proper masking, physical distancing and hand hygiene are being followed. If transmission is occurring within a group setting (such as a classroom, sports team, bus route, etc.), it is an indication that public health measures may not have been followed. If there are two or more positives in a group* contact Leavenworth County Health Department to determine if there is evidence of COVID-19 transmission. If transmission is identified, the entire group may be excluded for 14 days from
the last exposure to an infectious individual.
*Groups are considered to be a classroom, sports team, bus riders, clubs, etc. It is critical that seats and cohort groups are assigned and adhered to, so that contacts can be traced; if contacts cannot be traced and public health measures are not being followed, the entire group may be excluded following a single positive case.
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