June 29, 2022
Dear Superintendents and School Leaders,

I'm writing with updates on several COVID-19-related items that have arisen since my last message.

New COVID-19 Guidance Expected Soon
The California Department of Public Health is expected to release 2022-23 K-12 COVID-19 health and safety guidance at the end of the week. We will share the guidance and update our resources as appropriate once it is released.

Close Contact Redefined
As of June 21, the COVID-19 Emergency Temporary Standards (ETS) Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) webpage includes a new FAQ (#7 under Addressing COVID-19 Cases in the Workplace), explaining that the definitions of “close contact” and “infectious period” from the June 8, 2022 State Public Health Officer Order apply to the COVID-19 Prevention ETS.

Close contact is now defined as “someone sharing the same indoor airspace (e.g., home, clinic waiting room, airplane etc.) for a cumulative total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period (for example, three individual five-minute exposures for a total of 15 minutes) during an infected person's (laboratory-confirmed or a clinical diagnosis) infectious period.”

Infectious period is defined as:
  • “For symptomatic infected persons, 2 days before the infected person had any symptoms through Day 10 after symptoms first appeared (or through Days 5-10 if testing negative on Day 5 or later), and 24 hours have passed with no fever, without the use of fever-reducing medications, and symptoms have improved, OR
  • For asymptomatic infected persons, 2 days before the positive specimen collection date through Day 10 after positive specimen collection date (or through Days 5-10 if testing negative on Day 5 or later) after specimen collection date for their first positive COVID-19 test.”

The COVID-19 Decision Tree in English and Spanish, and the English and Spanish FAQ posted on the Decision Tree webpage, have been updated to reflect these changes. The e-Decision Tree is expected to be updated by Thursday afternoon.

Vaccination Toolkit
AASA, The Superintendents Association, in partnership with the Merck Foundation, has issued a new toolkit designed to help educational leaders address the decline of vaccination rates of students resulting from the recent COVID-19 pandemic. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, “During the COVID-19 pandemic, children have missed routine well-child care and related vaccinations. If [these] rates decline below levels to maintain herd immunity, dangerous outbreaks of preventable diseases could follow.”

Thank you for all that you do. Please reach out if you have any questions.

Sincerely,
Paul

Dr. Paul Gothold
San Diego County Superintendent of Schools
phone: 858-295-6641