Charleston County School District released new guidelines, no quarantine for fully vaccinated asymptomatic students

Charleston, South Carolina – As Omicron continues to spread across the state of South Carolina, the number of new Covid-19 cases continues to increase, something that was not the case with the previous variants of the virus.

The number of Covid-19 positive students is constantly increasing, but majority of them are seeing only mild or no symptoms at all.

Charleston County School District now decided to change the quarantine guidelines for fully vaccinated students. According to the new guidelines, the fully vaccinated students identified as close contacts no longer need to quarantine as long as they are asymptomatic.

Adult school staff and students above the age of 18 will also don’t have to quarantine of they have been close contact to a positive case if they are asymptomatic as long as they are fully vaccinated and boosted.

The most recent changes in the CCSD came on Monday and they were presented during a special school board meeting. The changes are following CDC and DHEC’s guidelines changes and officials confirmed that the latest changes came just hours before the meeting claiming that things are changing fast with Omicron in place.

“I will tell you the last five days have been more complicated with guidance than we have had during this entire Covid pandemic,” Chief Operating Officer Jeff Borowy said.

In addition to the changes, CCSD will start to implement a new strategy for unvaccinated students. According to Borowy, unvaccinated students who have been exposed to Covid-19 can now make a rapid test after their exposure. If they test negative, they should take another rapid test 24 hours after the first test. If they test negative for a second time, they can attend in-person teaching. The program is called Test to Stay.

Since the number of infected students and school staff is rapidly increasing in the last couple of weeks, the district opened several additional testing sites for students and school staff. School district’s officials confirmed more testing sites will be opened in the upcoming weeks. This is the full list of new testing sites opened in the area:

• Stall High School (8am-4pm)
• West Ashley High School (830am-2pm)
• East Cooper CAS (730am-3pm)
• Baptist Hill (830am-2pm)
• St. Johns High School (830am-130pm)