Marin revises school guidelines as COVID surge ebbs

Marin public health officials on Wednesday urged the county’s school community to stay vigilant on testing, masks, vaccinations and quarantines for “a few more weeks” until the omicron surge plateaus and then declines by the end of this month.

“I think we’re seeing early signs that the omicron surge is waning,” Dr. Matt Willis, Marin public health officer, told scores of parents, teachers and students on a webinar hosted by the Marin County Office of Education. “We’re seeing it plateau this week and next.”

The words of encouragement came as Willis and Dr. Lisa Santora, Marin deputy public health officer, announced changes to the county’s quarantine guidelines to allow for more students and staff to stay in school, even if they have been exposed.

The revised quarantine guidelines, available online at bit.ly/3K3hy9I, allow an unvaccinated person with a COVID infection within the last 30 days to not quarantine, unless the person is symptomatic and tests positive.

“They should only test if they’re symptomatic,” Santora said. “If they test positive, then they should isolate.”

Similarly, a fully vaccinated, but unboosted, person who was exposed may still attend school if asymptomatic and testing negative.

“Everyone needs to continue to wear masks indoors and outdoors,” she said. “We urge you to get boosted as soon as possible.”

In addition, Santora added that schools will stop sending exposure notices to parents for general virus exposures. Only exposures from close contacts — such as teammates in sports teams or friends in a carpool — would trigger an exposure notice and possible testing and quarantines.

“You can assume that all schools are having some COVID activity,” Santora said. “You need to know only about the close contacts.”

“For everyone else, this is your official notice that COVID is in our community,” Santora added.

Willis said the omicron surge that started Dec. 20 hit a one-day high in Marin on Jan. 4 with 625 positive cases reported. The daily average has dropped to about 300 cases.

Hospitalizations and deaths remain low, with about 12 to 15 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Marin on average. There was one death in the past two weeks from the virus, involving an elderly person who was in hospice, Willis said.

“We have not seen any significant increase in the past few days,” Willis said. “We need to stay strong for a few more weeks and hopefully there will be a decline by the end of January.”

The shift in approach to omicron and quarantines come as many Marin schools are securing more at-home rapid tests for families to use over the next week or two.

At Miller Creek School District, superintendent Becky Rosales said there were 52 positive cases among staff and students after the return from the holiday break, or about a 2.6% positivity rate. However, no one classroom breached the 25% threshold of infection needed to trigger officials to close a class.

“So far, the positive cases across our schools have been distributed over several classrooms,” she said in a note to parents. “We do not have a classroom that has reached the 25% threshold.”

Miller Creek has received a second round of at-home test kits and plans to send one home Thursday with each student and staff member to use before returning to school Tuesday after the three-day Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, Rosales said.

“Our community’s reporting rate after the winter break was stellar,” she said. “Let’s do it again.”

At San Rafael City Schools, officials are distributing at-home rapid test kits to all students, teachers and staff members, spokesperson Christina Perrino said in a note to families and staff.

“For these new tests, we ask that you follow testing guidance on when to use, rather than on a certain date,” she said. “Please keep the test(s) on hand to use when necessary, following Marin County Public Health’s guidance on when to test.”

The Novato Unified School District received a new supply of tests, but not enough to give to all students and staff for the three-day weekend, said spokesperson Leslie Benjamin.

“We are using our supply for symptomatic students and staff and for those that need to test in order to return to school,” Benjamin said in an email.

At Reed Union School District, all students and staff have access to tests as needed, said superintendent Kimberly McGrath.

“Reed Union School District has a strong supply of antigen tests available for students and staff,” McGrath said. “The state and county have provided antigen tests for our use.”

“In addition, RUSD has also purchased additional antigen tests in order to support this mitigation strategy as a support for our staff and families,” she said.

Officials at San Domenico School, a private school in San Anselmo, did not see any campus spread of COVID after the holiday break, said spokesperson Nick Vidinsky. As a result, officials are shifting from universal screening testing to testing only acute or symptomatic people or those with known exposure from close contacts.

“If a member of our community does test positive or has a known contact exposure, we are supplying them with take-home kits to test on Day 5 and possibly Day 7,” Vidinsky said in an email. “With sports presenting a higher risk of transmission, we have begun screening our athletes on a weekly basis.”

At Branson School, a private school in Ross, administrators are requiring most students to get boosted by Feb. 1, except in certain cases.

“We have communicated  to our community that we have a deadline of Feb. 1 for getting a booster,” Chris Mazzola, head of school, said in an email. “For those individuals who have recently tested positive for Covid, or who are not yet eligible for the booster because they got their original shots less than five months ago, we are handling those cases separately.”

A replay of Wednesday’s webinar will be posted within 24 hours. The next public health webinar is set for Feb. 9.