Lee Johnson on Thursday quizzed Gretchen Robinson, Wythe County’s school health coordinator, on protocol for when a student or teacher tests positive for COVID-19.
Johnson said she would prefer that a negative test be done to re-enter the schools but wanted to make sure that there were procedures in place.
Robinson said that the schools have been following the Virginia Department of Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. She noted that the board updated the policy on Dec. 7.
She said that the policy clearly states that students and staff returning can do so if they don’t have symptoms over the past 24 hours and it has been at least 10 days since symptoms began. For those who are asymptomatic, she said, they can return 10 days after the positive test.
Robinson said that when Mount Rogers Health District was still doing contact tracing, they have return dates to those people who tested positive. When the district stopped tracing, which resulted in the schools going to all virtual learning, the duty fell on her, Robinson said.
“I thought it was pretty well spelled out,” Stephen Sage said.
“It’s there in writing,” Robinson said.
