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COVID-19 » COVID-19 Exposure Management Plan - Fall 2021

COVID-19 Exposure Management Plan - Fall 2021


St. Elizabeth Parish School – Altadena

COVID-19 Exposure Management Plan

August 2021

 

A targeted public health response to contain COVID-19 exposures at a community level can help maximize the impact of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (DPH) COVID-19 response.

 

St. Elizabeth Parish School serving students from Transitional Kindergarten through Grade 8 is a trusted community partner that can help DPH improve the timeliness and impact of the Public Health response through rapid initiation of a COVID-19 Exposure Management Plan (EMP).  Immediate implementation of an EMP when a single case of COVID-19 is identified at school can accelerate the ability to contain the spread of infection and prevent outbreaks from occurring.

 

The steps for managing exposures to 1, 2, 3 or more COVID-19 cases at St. Elizabeth Parish School are described below and summarized in Appendix A.

 

Exposure Management Planning Prior to Identifying 1 COVID-19 Case at St. Elizabeth Parish School

REQUIRED:  Dr. Phyllis Cremer, Principal, is the designated School COVID-19 Compliance Officer.  She is responsible for establishing and enforcing all COVID-19 safety protocols and ensuring that staff and students receive education about COVID-19.  She serves as a liaison to DPH for sharing site-level information to facilitate public health action.

 

REQUIRED: All students and employees who (1) have symptoms consistent with COVID-19, (2) are quarantined because of exposures at school, or (3) are at school with an active public health investigation shall have access to testing or be tested for COVID-19.

 

RECOMMENDED:  St. Elizabeth Parish School is implementing an asymptomatic screening testing program.  Staff and students that are not fully vaccinated are prioritized for regular testing as an important part of identifying infections early to prevent transmission on campus. Fully vaccinated individuals are included in a school’s asymptomatic screening testing program, on request and if an active case has been identified and exposure to the active case is suspected.

 

RECOMMENDED: St. Elizabeth Parish School is implementing a DPH-guided symptom screening program prior to school entry or while at school.  St. Elizabeth will deploy the MyMedBot DPH-guided symptom screening program every school day by 6:00am.  The MyMedBot will not be deployed during school holidays.  St. Elizabeth Parish School will apply DPH guidance on Decision Pathways for persons who have not been tested yet for COVID-19 but screen positive for symptoms prior to school entry or while at school. Students will be screened at home by parents before arrival at school.  A thermometer will be available for teachers and staff to conduct temperature checks if necessary.

 

Staff will use the MyMedBot program for COVID screening before arrival at school.  Faculty and Staff of St. Elizabeth Parish School will be COVID tested once a week regardless of vaccination status.

 

Students participating in CYO Sports will need to be COVID tested once a week.

 

 

Exposure Management for 1 COVID-19 Case at St. Elizabeth Parish School

 

REQUIRED: After identifying 1 confirmed COVID-19 case (student or employee), the School Compliance Office instructs the case to follow Home Isolation Instructions for COVID-19 (ph.lacounty.gov/covidisolation).  NOTE: a confirmed COVID-19 case is an individual who has a positive COVID-19 test.

 

REQUIRED: Dr. Cremer, the School Compliance Officer provides a copy of the Public Health Emergency Isolation Order and informs the case that DPH will contact the case directly through the DPH Case and Contact Investigation Program to collect additional information and issue the Health Officer Order for Case Isolation.

 

REQUIRED: Dr. Cremer, the School Compliance Officer works to identify all individuals in the School who have had an exposure to the confirmed positive case during their infectious period (Close Contacts).

  1. A case is considered to be infectious from 2 days before their symptoms first appeared until the time they are no longer required to be isolated (i.e., no fever for at least 24 hours, without the use of medicine that reduce fevers AND other symptoms have improved AND at least 10 days have passed since symptoms first appeared). A person with a positive COVID-19 test but no symptoms is considered infectious from 2 days before their test was taken until 10 days after their test.
  2. Close Contact: A person is considered to have been exposed to a case during the infectious period if at least one of the following criteria is met:
  3. Being within 6 feet of the infected person for 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period.
  4. Having had unprotected contact with the infected person’s body fluids and/or secretions of a person with confirmed COVID-19 (e.g., being coughed or sneezed on, sharing utensils or saliva, or providing care without using protective equipment). 
Exposures will be reviewed by Public Health to assess which persons need to quarantine including the possibility of quarantining all individuals in the same cohort or classroom as an infected person if exposures cannot be ruled out for the entire group.

 

REQUIRED: Dr. Cremer, the School Compliance Officer shall notify DPH of (1) employees and students with confirmed COVID-19 who were on campus at any point within the 14 days prior to the illness onset date and (2) persons on campus who were exposed to the infected person during the infectious period.  The illness onset date is the first date of COVID-19 symptoms or the COVID-19 test date, whichever is earlier.

 

All COVID-19 exposure case notifications to DPH shall be submitted within 1 business day of being notified of the case. Secure online reporting is the preferred method for notifying DPH of COVID-19 exposures and can be done on a computer or mobile device with access to the secure web application: http://www.redcap.link/lacdph.educationsector.covidreport

 

REQUIRED: All persons identified to have had an exposure to a COVID-19 positive case at school are notified by the School Compliance Officer of the exposure through a letter or other communication strategies. The notification of exposure shall include the following messages:

 

Employees with a worksite exposure should follow guidance outlined in Cal/OSHA COVID19 Prevention https://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/coronavirus/ETS.html/. A summary of requirements is provided in the Public Health guidance document on http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/acd/ncorona2019/workplaceresponse/

 

Students and employees with an exposure to the case should test for COVID-19 and inform the school of test results. This will determine the extent of disease spread at the school and serve as a basis for further control measures. Testing resources include: Employee Health Services or Occupational Health Services, Student Health Center, Personal Healthcare Providers, Community Testing Sites: https://covid19.lacounty.gov/testing/ . Individuals who need assistance finding a medical provider can call the LA County Information line 2-1-1, which is available 24/7.

 

Exposed students and employees who are not fully vaccinated** must self-quarantine (stay in their home or another residence, separate from others) and monitor for symptoms for 10 days from their last contact with the case while infectious (as defined above). If they remain asymptomatic, quarantine can end after Day 10 from the last date of exposure without testing but they must continue to monitor their health and adhere to COVID-19 prevention precautions through Day 14. Quarantine may end after Day 7 for exposed students who remain asymptomatic, if a diagnostic specimen is collected after Day 5 from the date of last exposure and tests negative, but they must continue to monitor their health and adhere to COVID-19 prevention precautions through Day 14.
 

 

NOTE: Asymptomatic persons who are fully vaccinated AND who are a close contact to a confirmed case are recommended to test for COVID-19 as a result of their exposure but are not required to quarantine.  However, they should monitor for symptoms of COVID-19 for 14 days following an exposure.  Persons who have recovered from laboratory-confirmed COVId-19 within the last 90 days AND who are a close contact to a confirmed case are not required to quarantine or test for COVID-19.

 

DPH will contact exposed students and employees who meet the quarantine requirement through the DPH Case and Contact Investigation Program to collect additional information and issue the Health Officer Order for Quarantine.

 

RECOMMENDED: Dr. Cremer, the School Compliance Officer will determine whether additional notification is needed to inform the wider school community about the school exposure and precautions being taken to prevent spread of COVID-19.

 

Exposure Management for 2 COVID-19 Cases at St. Elizabeth Parish School within a 14-day Period

 

REQUIRED: After identifying 2 confirmed cases (students and/or employees) within a 14-day period, the school follows the steps for 1 confirmed case.

 

RECOMMENDED: Dr. Cremer, the School Compliance Officer determines whether the 2 cases are epidemiologically linked, meaning that the two affected individuals were both present at some point in the same setting during the same time period while wither or both were infectious.

 

Determination of epidemiological links between cases may require further investigation to assess exposure history and identify all possible locations and persons that may have been exposed to the case while infectious at the site. NOTE:  Epidemiologically linked cases include persons with identifiable connections to each other such as sharing a physical space (e.g. in a classroom, office site on campus, or gathering), indicating a higher likelihood of linked spread of disease in that setting rather than sporadic transmission from the broader community.

 

If epidemiological links do not exist, the school continues with routine exposure management.

 

If epidemiological links exist, the school reinforces messages to students and employees on precautions to take to prevent spread at the school, including implementations of site-specific interventions.

  

Exposure Management for 3 or more COVID-19 Cases at St. Elizabeth Parish School within a 14-day Period

 

REQUIRED: If the school identifies a cluster of 3 or more confirmed cases (students and/or employees) within a 14-day period, the school shall proceed with the following steps:

 

Report the cluster immediately to DPH via the secure web application: http://www.redcap.link/lacdph.educationsector.covidreport

 

DPH will review the submitted information to determine whether the outbreak criteria described below have been met and will notify the school within 1 business day on next steps.

 

Outbreak Criteria: At least 3 confirmed cases with symptomatic and asymptomatic COVID-19 within a 14-day period in a group with members who are epidemiologically linked, do not share a household, and are not a close contact of each other outside of the campus.  School groups include persons that share a common membership at school (e.g., classroom, school event, school extracurricular activity, academic class, sport teams, clubs, transportation).  Epidemiological links require the infected persons to have been present at some point in the same setting during the same period while infectious.

 

If outbreak criteria are not met, DPH will advise the school to continue with routine exposure management.

 

If outbreak criteria are met, DPH will notify the school that an outbreak investigation has been activated and a public health investigator will communicate directly with the school to coordinate the outbreak response