A Tuesday update to the COVID-19 guidance for schools revises protocols for responding to exposure to someone who has tested positive in classrooms or on a school bus.
Under the updated version, close contacts exposed to a COVID-positive individual in a classroom or on a bus while both individuals wore masks do not have to quarantine unless they were within three feet of that individual for a total of 15 minutes during a 24-hour period.
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The close contacts still need to quarantine if masks were not worn by both persons during the exposure, or if someone is identified as a close contact in other settings like sports, extracurricular activities or lunch.
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Close contacts who are fully vaccinated also do not need to quarantine as long as they do not have symptoms.
During the week from April 8-14, 1,095 new student cases of COVID-19 and 184 new staff cases were reported by Massachusetts schools.
