Families asked to quarantine students after possible Thanksgiving COVID-19 exposure
November 28, 2020 | By Lisa Scagliotti
Teachers and staff at Thatcher Brook Primary School were greeted before the Thanksgiving holiday with a sea of "thank you" signs made by students and parents. Photos by Gordon Miller.
After a significant spike in COVID-19 cases in Vermont after Halloween with small social gatherings pinpointed as the cause, public health officials and Gov. Phil Scott just ahead of Thanksgiving urged K-12 schools across the state to screen students about their holiday when they return for in-person classes this week.
At the administration’s COVID-19 press briefing on Nov. 24, Gov. Scott and Education Secretary Dan French said the latest restrictions prohibiting gatherings of people from different households should be considered part of the state’s travel guidance when conducting daily health screenings for students and staff arriving at schools for in-person instruction. The screening questions that either students or parents answer already ask about out-of-state travel.
New guidance for school districts from the state states: “While these limits are in place, students or staff participating in multi-household social gatherings may be excluded from attending in-person instruction.”
Those answering “yes” to having either traveled out of state or gathered with people they don’t live with would be required to quarantine at home for either 14 days or seven days with a negative test at the end of that period.
The latest direction came on the last day of school before the Thanksgiving holiday, prompting school officials to scramble to decide whether and how to implement and communicate this information to families.
In the Harwood Union Unified School District, Superintendent Brigid Nease sent out a communication to families Tuesday evening sharing this new information and stressing its objectives.
“Clearly the state has serious concerns about virus spread,” Nease wrote, noting recent case growth in Washington County. Gov. Scott in announcing the additional limitations on social contacts on Nov. 20 stressed that the objective was to curb the virus spread and keep it from closing schools to in-person learning. “That is our #1 goal as well,” Nease said.
School administrators considered the pros and cons of the new directive with the main benefit being that it would make school staff feel safer and it would give school screeners clearer guidance on requiring staff and students to quarantine.
The downsides, Nease noted, would be sending some students home for a period of time and also putting those students who answer the screening questions themselves on the spot.
“We are concerned about the position this puts students in to tell the truth in very difficult circumstances that may be out of their control,” Nease wrote.
The school guidance notes some practical considerations such as those households already regularly in contact for schooling or child care purposes would be allowed but “pods” for social activity such as playgroups are prohibited. The state ban on multi-household contact also notes that contact with others in stores and places where protocols are in place is allowed as is limited outdoor fitness activity as long as individuals wear masks and keep their distance.
In addition to the Thanksgiving question, state officials also released new information this week regarding winter school sports. Practices and training were to begin Monday, Nov. 30, but that has been put on hold to allow state officials to review public health data to decide whether, how and when to proceed in December.
Few cases, little spread
The new measure comes as the Harwood Union district has handled several instances of positive COVID-19 cases in schools without any outbreaks or significant spread of the virus reported.
Earlier this month, adults connected with Harwood Union Middle and High School and Moretown Elementary School tested positive resulting in several dozen students and staff needing to quarantine and be tested. Nease in her memo on the 24th said that four student cases were detected in connection with those situations, three of whom were from one family. She did not specify which school or schools the affected attended although none were in school when they would have been infectious, she noted.
The week before Thanksgiving, the district’s seven schools also took part in a new surveillance testing effort launched by the state to test as many school teachers and staff monthly to better understand the virus spread in the larger community. More than 200 district staff took the voluntary tests offered on Nov. 19 and Nease reported that no positive cases were detected.
“Our efforts are paying off and the virus does not appear to be spreading in our schools,” she wrote.
But the state’s urging schools to include the Thanksgiving question in health screenings touched off a flurry of reaction on social media from Vermonters around the state. Much of it was directed at Gov. Scott who addressed it at Friday’s press briefing. He said he was aware of the reaction that also included many calls to his office. When asked whether he thought the directive had backfired, he disagreed.
“I don’t think it’s backfired at all. It’s important to reflect on what we’re asking,” Scott said, noting that the daily health screenings already have questions about symptoms and travel and that in many instances, parents provide the answers for students.
Although districts are not required to ask the new question about Thanksgiving, the state is advising them to ask it. Scott also had advice for families whose children would have to answer “yes” to be truthful. “If you have had one of those gatherings yesterday, you shouldn’t send your kids to school next week. You should quarantine your kids at least 7 days, get a test and we move forward,” he said. “This isn’t an interrogation of your kids.”
Scott described the public reaction as “hitting a nerve -- either a guilt nerve or a resistance nerve… but the intent is to protect Vermonters.”
Awaiting the Thanksgiving impact
Regardless of whether individuals who traveled or mingled with others voluntarily share that information, the state and nation now wait to see whether Thanksgiving holiday activities will result in new surges in COVID-19 case counts. State modeling forecasts already are bracing for an increase of about 40 percent in coming weeks, according to data shared at the Nov. 24 press briefing.
“My request to Vermonters who may have participated in travel and or multi-household gatherings is simply this: please quarantine yourselves at home, and please get tested now and in 7 days.” That was the message Friday from Dr. Mark Levine, Vermont’s Health Commissioner, at the COVID-19 press briefing with Gov. Scott and other state officials.
Levine said he was heartened to see surveys done nationally ahead of the holiday that indicated only about a third or less of the population planned to travel or have Thanksgiving dinner with people from other households. Vermont estimates were among the lowest, he said, with some reservation.
“Such surveys probably underestimate reality as people don’t always want to freely admit to doing what they’ve been told not to do,” he said.
But traffic on Vermont highways seemed light and airport activity was reported to be lower than usual for the holiday, Levine noted. “I hope we achieved even lower,” he said. “We will learn more in 7 to 14 days.”
Read the state guidance on the new health screening question here.
See the latest Vermont Department of Health COVID-19 data and information here.