Warsaw Schools, KCHD List COVID Response To CDC Updates
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Staff Report-
Warsaw Community Schools continues to collaborate with Kosciusko County Health Department (KCHD) to offer CDC and Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) updates to WCS families. Three items to note are symptoms, testing and siblings.
New information from the CDC defines symptoms with more specificity. Symptoms to screen for include a temperature of 100.4 or higher when taken by mouth; sore throat; new uncontrolled cough that causes difficulty breathing (for students with chronic allergic/asthmatic cough, a change in their cough from baseline); diarrhea, vomiting or abdominal pain; new onset of severe headache, especially with fever; and loss of taste or smell, according to a news release from?WCS.
CDC recommendations for testing are if the individual is a confirmed close contact and asked to quarantine by KCHD or ISDH. That person must quarantine for a full 14 days even if they receive a negative test. A doctor's note does not make them exempt from the quarantine if issued by KCHD. If the individual decides to be tested, they must self-isolate at home until test results are known, then adhere to health care provider advice.
Anyone who is not a close contact may return to school or work if they receive a negative test and are fever-free for 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medications with symptoms resolved. No doctor’s note is required, stated the release.
Testing is not recommended for anyone who does not have symptoms and is not a confirmed close contact.
Under the new state mandates, siblings of anyone sent home with symptoms are required to also be sent home until a negative test result for the symptomatic student is given. The student protocol resource has been updated and is available on the district website www.warsawschools.org under Health Services.
