In an effort to limit student quarantines and keep kids in school, Governor Herbert today (December 17) announced some noteworthy modifications to the COVID-19 School Manual that will be in effect when students return to school on January 4.
- Updated Quarantine Guidelines for Mask-to-Mask Exposures at School (page 2)
- Testing to Stay Option (page 6)
The entire updated COVID-19 School Manual should be available at coronavirus.utah.gov by tonight.
The Utah Department of Health is also making the following changes which will be updated in the COVID-19 School Manual for K-12 schools:
The case threshold for determining when to act when there is an outbreak in a school will change as follows:
- Schools with Students and Staff >1,500 will be asked to act when 1% of the population is positive (only impacts MHS)
- Schools with students and staff <1,500 will be asked to act when 15 individuals in the population are positive
When a school reaches the threshold, School Board and Health Department can:
- Move to virtual for 10 calendar days
- Implement Test to Stay option
If three or more students in a class test positive, the class will be asked to move to remote learning for 10 days in elementary classrooms only (not in secondary classrooms).
- Mask mandate in K-12 schools continues (order was set to expire on December 30).