The Lower Kuskokwim School District (LKSD) has updated its COVID-19 quarantine and isolation protocols. They reflect new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation (YKHC). The changes could allow students and staff to return to school sooner after an infection or exposure to COVID-19.
The new protocols were posted on LKSD’s website on Jan. 14. If students and staff have either been vaccinated recently or are boosted, they will not have to quarantine after exposure to COVID-19. Students and staff that are unvaccinated or unboosted will now only have to quarantine for five days, as long as they receive a negative test result on the fifth day.
For isolation, which is the period after being infected with COVID-19, LKSD is applying different criteria to staff versus students. If an LKSD staff member is infected with COVID-19, they will only have to isolate for five days if they receive a negative test result on the fifth day. If a student is infected with COVID-19, however, they will still have to isolate for 10 full days. LKSD said that the reason for that is because students cannot avoid taking their masks off in certain situations at school, like when they eat lunch with other students.
