Alex Mecl / Unsplash
Alex Mecl / Unsplash
Centers for Disease Control guidelines decreasing the amount of time asymptomatic individuals must spend in quarantine is not being picked up by River Forest District 90.
The school district noted it is not not implementing the new standards decreasing the amount of quarantine time from 14 days to five days.
“As shared in the District 90 email message earlier this week, the District is aware of the recently recommended changes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) regarding the length of time that asymptomatic individuals should isolate when they have tested positive with COVID-19. Both the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) and the Cook County Department of Public Health (CCDPH) have indicated that they support these changes from the CDC,” the school district noted in an email to parents. “However, District 90 is awaiting clarification about several key elements before implementing the changes. Please be assured that the District will communicate the forthcoming revisions to our District 90 COVID-19 protocols regarding isolation and quarantine as soon as possible.”
The school district noted it intends to go ahead with a 14-day quarantine, as has been the standard.
Some academics have rejected the idea of isolating individuals during pandemics.
A Center for Biosecurity Disease paper, "Mitigation Measures in the Control of Pandemic Influenza," reported “home quarantine.. raises ethical questions. Implementation of home quarantine could result in healthy, uninfected people being placed at risk from infection from sick household members.”
It also reported that “experience has shown that communities faced with epidemics or other adverse events respond best and with the least anxiety when the normal social functioning of the community is least disrupted." “There is no basis for recommending quarantine either of groups or individuals. The problems in implementing such measures are formidable, and secondary effects of absenteeism and community disruption [are severe]," the paper said.
According to the UPI, the number of deaths amid the omicron variant has dropped significantly despite a doubling in number of cases of COVID worldwide.
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