MS schools don’t have to report COVID-19 cases or outbreaks to the public, Reeves says
The state isn’t requiring Mississippi schools to inform the public when teachers and students test positive for COVID-19, Gov. Tate Reeves said at his press conference Wednesday.
State health officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs said Tuesday that it is inevitable that some people will arrive at school infected with the virus.
“Without a doubt, every school that opens is going to have some child, some teenager with coronavirus walking through the door,” Dobbs said. “Just based on the law of averages, we’re going to see that.”
But it’s possible that the public actually won’t see that. While state guidelines say schools should notify teachers and the parents of students who have been in contact with an infected person, they aren’t required to notify the entire school or the community at large.
“I don’t know that there is a specific guideline in place that i’m aware of,” Reeves said.
Corinth School District, the first in the state to start back last week, has already reported eight cases across all three campuses in the district. At Wednesday’s press conference, Dobbs said that several other counties, including Forrest have also reported positive cases.
Corinth has posted press releases on its website and notified all parents, not only parents of kids who were exposed to someone who tested positve, each time it identifies a case.
“It certainly speaks very highly [of Corinth] that they’re doing it and I think that all school districts should,” Reeves said.
On Tuesday, Dobbs praised Corinth and its contact tracing efforts as a model for other districts.
“This is a wonderful opportunity for us to work with them and learn for future exposures,” he said.
Dobbs said on Wednesday that the state plans to collect information on case numbers in school districts and post that information at the state health department website, as it currently does for outbreaks at long-term care facilities.
Should public be notified about COVID cases?
Districts on the Coast have already had teachers, administrators and students test positive for the virus. Jackson County said yesterday that five students and four teachers had tested positive.
Over the summer, cases at schools have come to light generally because of media inquiries, not announcements by districts.
Most Coast school districts have announced that they will notify teachers and students in close contact with a person who tests positive, but have not indicated they will inform the school community at large.
Superintendent John Strycker of Jackson County said his district will post information about positive cases among staff and students online, along with data about pediatric cases from local hospitals.
Anyone who has been in close contact with a person who tested positive will be advised to watch carefully for symptoms and consider getting tested, but won’t be automatically required to quarantine.
“It will be situation by situation,” Strycker said.
That’s different from the policy in Corinth, where dozens of students are currently under quarantine after close contact with people who have the virus. It also differs from state guidelines saying that close contacts should get tested and isolate at home for 14 days.
Jennifer Pyron, public relations specialist at Biloxi Public Schools, said the district will only notify people who have been in contact with a person who tests positive, rather than issuing general announcements.
Obaid Siddiqui, a pediatrician who has worked on the Coast for 25 years, said that school reopenings are certain to lead to an increase in cases. Kids are not the population he’s most worried about, he said.
“Going back to school, it is more of a risk for the people who are going to be around them, who are at high risk, teachers, relatives, grandparents at home,” he said.
Siddiqui said he is not sure that notifying the general public about a positive case at a school is necessary, if the school is following safety guidelines and alerting contacts.
“If telling everybody is going to change anything as far as what your response is going to be, then I think it would make sense,” he said.
When to close schools?
Dobbs said at the press conference that the state has issued guidelines for when schools should consider closing because of the virus.
If three or more kids in a particular classroom test positive, the entire class should quarantine, he said.
If three or four different classrooms or groups fall into that category, “it’s time to consider if the school will have a two-week break,” Dobbs said.
“If a break is taken, we can let the virus flush out and prevent transmission in the school,” Dobbs said. “It’s really tough to run a school when so many kids are quarantined.”
This story was originally published August 5, 2020 at 3:59 PM.
