While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Alexandria Health Department (AHD) continue to recommend that close contacts quarantine for 14 days as best practice, ACPS recognizes that a 14-day quarantine can cause loss of learning and undue hardship on our families. With the support of the School Board, ACPS is shortening the length of quarantine for close contacts to seven days after the date of last exposure if staff provide documentation to their supervisor of a negative COVID PCR test that is administered on day five, six, or seven. The earliest return date is day eight.
Staff returning to school on the eighth day after the date of last exposure will be required to provide their negative COVID PCR test result to their supervisor. The test must be a PCR test.
If a staff member does not choose to be tested, the staff will be quarantined for 10 days, with a return on day 11. The staff must be asymptomatic.
As a reminder, fully-vaccinated staff do not need to quarantine if they are symptom-free. An individual is considered fully vaccinated if it has been two weeks since their final dose of an approved vaccine.
Isolation is still required for staff who have a positive COVID-19 test. Individuals with a positive COVID-19 test must be isolated for 10 days, and can only return to work if free from COVID-19 symptoms, including fever, sore throat, cough, difficulty breathing, diarrhea, vomiting and loss of taste or smell. Please remember the quarantine guidance only applies to unvaccinated individuals. Fully-vaccinated individuals identified as close contact are not required to quarantine if they have no symptoms.
ACPS health and safety protocols help keep our schools, students and staff safe. Thank you for all you are doing to help reduce the transmission of COVID-19 in our schools.