As Wisconsin health officials work through a continued surge in COVID-19 cases after the holidays, many area schools returned to the classroom on Jan. 3.
School officials say that parents are telling them tests are hard to find – Appleton Area School District had been offering drive-through testing for AASD students and staff for nearly a month until closing Jan. 3 due to cold temperatures. Due to the expected increase in COVID-19 cases, AASD students and staff are wearing masks for in-person instruction through Jan. 18.
Because of the scarcity of tests locally, Green Bay Area Public Schools is accepting positive at-home rapid results without PCR confirmation for COVID-19 diagnosis and quarantine timelines. However, GBAPS is still requiring a negative PCR test to confirm negative results, per director of communications Lori Blakeslee.
Advocate Aurora Health's Chief Medical Group Officer Dr. Jeff Bahr had optimism that the recent Pfizer booster approval for children 12-15 years old could help students avoid prolonged symptoms and sickness, but does not think it will do much to mitigate the spread in schools.
"That definitely gives us a little bit of optimism in terms of repelling the impact of viral infection. It may not reduce the Omicron variants spread but it will reduce the impact of that spread we believe in those who are vaccinated fully boosted," Dr. Bahr said.
Dr. Bahr also echoed mitigation strategies proven to reduce the spread of viral infections such as masking and social distancing in schools as Howard-Suamico School District returned without a mask mandate for any K-12 students, staff and visitors as of Jan. 3.
"I do think relative to the school-age population that we want to align with CDC guidelines and local ordinances, but still reinforce the public health mitigation measures that we've been touting all along and so far is handwashing, masking, distancing, using common sense when it comes to social events. Especially among the unvaccinated in the immunocompromised population," Dr. Bahr said.
During the holiday break, the CDC updated guidelines for positive case results to a five-day quarantine and then five days wearing masks around others. Monday afternoon, the Howard-Suamico School District updated their protocols to reflect that timeline.
Blakeslee says GBAPS is choosing to stick to their previous 10-day quarantine protocol because the adjusted CDC guidelines were not recommended for schools, and that Wisconsin DHS has recommended schools to continue with their previous timelines.
