Lake County Schools students and employees will face shorter COVID-19 quarantine periods, effective immediately. The change is based on new guidelines from the CDC, which reduced the quarantine period from 14 days to 10 days. The district is implementing the changes with the support of the Lake County Health Department.
Students and staff who test positive for the virus will be allowed to return to school and work after meeting the following criteria:
- At least 10 days have passed since symptoms first appeared, and
- At least 24 hours have passed without fever and without the use of fever-reducing medications, and
- Symptoms (cough, shortness of breath, etc.) have improved.
Those who test positive without symptoms will be allowed to return after at least 10 days have passed since the specimen collection date of the first positive lab test. Students and employees with severe illness or who are severely immunocompromised may need to be isolated for 20 days, based on the recommendation from a healthcare professional.
A person found to have been in close contact with someone who tests positive may take a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test on Day 6 or later. If the test is negative, that person may leave quarantine after Day 7. Without testing, quarantine can end after Day 10 as long as no symptoms have been reported during daily monitoring.
Those who develop symptoms while quarantined may take a PCR test on Day 6 or later. If the test is negative, they may return to school or work after Day 7.
For more information, please visit the CDC’s website.
