CDC Endorses Schools ’ Coronavirus ‘Test-to-Stay’ Policies

NEW YORK — U.S. health officials are endorsing “test-to-stay” policies that allow close contacts of students infected with the coronavirus to remain in classrooms if they test negative. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) decided to more firmly embrace the approach, already used by many school districts, after research of such policies in the Chicago and Los Angeles areas found COVID-19 infections did not increase when using the approach. “Test-to-stay is an encouraging public health practice to help keep our children in school,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said on Friday. CDC’s official guidance for schools has been that when someone in a school tests positive for COVID-19 infection, those who were deemed to be in close contact should stay out of school, in home quarantine, for 10 days. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] With the announcement Friday, the CDC is saying both test-to-stay programs and quarantining approaches are both equally good options for schools. Hundreds of schools have adopted test-to-stay policies, and several states have funded statewide test-to-stay policies to prevent students from spending long stretches away from school. Previously, the CDC said there is promise in the approach, as long as other measures such as masking for both teachers and students were followed. CDC has been working with some school districts to evaluate the programs, and the agency released two studies that in...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 healthscienceclimate Source Type: news