VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Virginia Beach's school division and health department are loosening COVID quarantine protocol in some classrooms.
They are following school-specific data, along with the health department, that they said shows COVID spread is much smaller for high school students.
“We aren’t making a decision based on hope, we are making a decision based on data,” said Acting Health Department Director Dr. Nancy Welch.
Starting this week, high schoolers who aren’t showing any symptoms no longer have to quarantine if they came in close contact with someone who has COVID.
“We picked the high school population because we are confident that the data says that can be done safely,” said Virginia Beach City Public Schools COO Jack Freeman.
Health officials said 800 high school students in Virginia Beach have had to quarantine this year. Freeman said that’s risky.
“There is risk educationally, there is a burden on families that have to make schedule adjustments,” Freeman said. “We know it also takes a mental toll.”
School epidemiologists on the team said the risk of transmission in high school is low.
“In the high school level, less than one percent of all students who have had an exposure have gone on to test positive,” said VBDPH epidemiologist Joshilyn Binkley. “Much lower than what we are experiencing at the middle and elementary level.”
Officials said their data shows at the high school level it takes 26 positive COVID-19 cases to result in an additional case; in elementary school, it takes fewer than four positive cases.
“There is no doubt in my mind that a big contributor of that difference is the vaccination level,” Dr. Welch said.
School Board member Jessica Owens is all for the change, but has some reservations.
“I did hear from some parents who had concerns. I have questions myself, because we are seeing an uptick, that is expected during the holiday season,” Owens said. “And with the new variant as well, I have questions on how we will determine this is working.”
Health officials said they are ramping up contact tracing in schools and will keep an eye on potential negative consequences of this new change.
Division officials say the health department will monitor the data over the next few weeks.