The revised guidelines on quarantines from the CDC are supported by the Indiana State Department of Health and the Fayette County Health Department. Fayette County Schools will begin utilizing the new 10-day quarantine guidelines effective immediately. As a reminder, the need to quarantine is due to an individual identified through contact tracing as having been in close contact with a Covid-19 positive person for 15 or more minutes. Additionally, our state and local health departments are recommending, at this time, that we only utilize the 10-day quarantine period as the volume of Covid-19 tests for the seven-day quarantine period are creating up to a week of a delay on results.
Below are the new guidelines Fayette County Schools will follow for 10-day quarantines:
Quarantine can end after Day 10 (of possible exposure date) without testing if no symptoms have been reported during daily monitoring. The 10-day window begins when the employee or student was last exposed to a positive Covid-19 person for at least 15 minutes.
Example: John ate dinner with his friend and they were in close contact for 45 minutes on December 1st. The friend was having some minor symptoms the day she was with John. The friend was tested on December 2nd and received positive Covid-19 test results on December 4th. John will need to quarantine immediately and his 10-day quarantine period starts on December 1st, when he was in close contact with his friend who tested positive. John was not tested and continues to have no symptoms. John can return to school on December 11th so long as he remains symptom-free. John should take extra precautions with social-distancing and wearing of his mask through the full 14-day time period, but may return after 10 days of quarantine from his date of exposure.