VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — High school students in Virginia Beach no longer need to quarantine if they’ve been exposed to COVID-19.
This week, the Virginia Beach school district began peeling back some COVID mitigation strategies.
District leaders discussed the risk/benefit analysis Tuesday after looking through months of COVID-19 data.
“The school by the data that you’ve seen has proven that it is actually a much safer environment than the community,” said Nancy Welch, acting health director for the City of Virginia Beach.
In a chart presented to the school board, local health officials estimated that if 89 high school students quarantined after a COVID exposure, the odds are one would test positive for the coronavirus. School administrators believe without suspending quarantine, that group of high school students could collectively lose 400 days of in-person learning.
If 40 middle school students quarantined, one would likely test positive. In elementary schools, it would take 22 students to quarantine to result in one COVID case.
“Children tend to play with each other on the playground, remove their mask so there’s generally more opportunity in just their general play activities where they are having contact without the mask,” Welch stated.
City vaccination rates for teens were a big deciding factor on the quarantine suspension in high schools. The Virginia Department of Health shows more than half of teens are fully vaccinated in Virginia Beach. Masking and social distancing also played a role in the district’s decision to peel back mitigation strategies.
“It’s just a question of layers. How much of a role each plays,” Welch explained.
The district will closely look at data within its high schools over the next three weeks and will continue to contact trace.
School leaders will re-evaluate their decision on Jan. 24. If COVID cases don’t drastically increase, they will also consider making masks optional if 60% of students are fully vaccinated.
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