Hot off the email inbox, we’ve got some news and updates to pass along from one of Governor Inslee’s senior policy advisers.
The state DOH published an update to the Requirements and Guidance to Mitigate COVID–19 Transmission in K–12 Schools, Child Care, Early Learning, Youth Development, and Day Camp Programs document today. These updated school health and safety requirements take effect March 12 to coincide with the lifting of general indoor masking requirements. DOH is releasing it today to help people plan for this transition.
In updating this guidance and discussions with health, education, and child care stakeholders, DOH lifted and balanced the priorities of keeping kids in school/care while preventing severe disease.
There are fewer requirements, which are outlined in Section 1 of the document and listed below:
- Employee vaccination
- Exclusion of people with symptoms
- Isolation of people with COVID
- Notifying groups or individuals of potential exposures
- Access to diagnostic testing
- Reporting of cases, outbreaks
- Responding to outbreaks
Masks are not required in general. However, masks are still required in the nurse/health room and isolation room as these are considered healthcare settings.
Most prior required layered prevention measures, like masks, screening tests, ventilation, and distancing, are now advisory, recognizing where we are and as we move into the next phase of the pandemic. The layered measures of prevention and mitigation appear in Section 2 with additional considerations in Section 3. Any individual or combination of these measures may be required by a school, district, program, or local government generally, for higher risk activities, and/or in response to an outbreak or high level of disease.
Section 4 and the Appendix include a variety of resources and additional information.
DOH also merged the Childcare, K–12 Schools Requirements, and Supplemental Considerations into one document. There are a handful of additional resource documents that DOH is updating and will post through the week.