COVID-19 Updates

List of 10 items.

• What if there is a confirmed case on campus?

  Parents of students in an affected class and affected faculty/staff will receive a notification via email followed by contact by the divisional health staff.

  • Confidentiality of the diagnosed student or teacher will be maintained according to the Americans with Disabilities Act.
  • The communication will include clear instruction and explanation of whether quarantine measures have been recommended by the Virginia Department of Health.
  • Children and faculty who are in close contact with an individual confirmed to be infected by COVID will be required to quarantine for 10 days and share a negative COVID-19 test with the School. Close contact is defined as being within 6 feet for more than 15 minutes. The quarantine will begin at the start of the next school day. (You will not need to come pick up your child mid-day.)
  • Siblings are not required to observe the quarantine unless the exposed individual develops symptoms and/ or tests positive for COVID.
  • Distance learning will be provided to ensure continuity of learning during the quarantine.

• How will the School determine if a division or the whole school has to close?

  Under the guidance of the Virginia Department of Health, we will review many data points in order to determine if a partial or full school closure is necessary. 

• Report Any Known Exposure or Positive COVID-19 Cases Immediately

  Students, parents, and faculty/ staff are required to report a confirmed COVID diagnosis or confirmed COVID exposure confidentially to the divisional school nurse or the Director of Health Services immediately upon diagnosis. The health staff will provide guidance throughout recovery and assist with school reentry. If your son is waiting on the results of a COVID test, he should remain at home until the test results are final.

• What do I need to know about exposure, close contact and quarantine?

  Please review the VDH website for definitions and guidance about exposure, close contact and when to quarantine.

  The quarantine period for asymptomatic students and employees is 10 days with confirmation of a negative COVID-19 test. The following School protocols remain in place for students, faculty or staff who must quarantine:
  

  • Test 5-7 days after exposure
  • Monitor and track daily symptoms and provide information to the School nurses 
  • Share lab reports of a negative test with School nurses before returning to campus

  As a reminder, if a student or employee has a household member who tests positive for COVID-19, the student or employee may not come to campus and must quarantine. Please continue to report all illness and COVID-19 positive cases and exposures to Courtney Ash, Middle/Upper School Nurse or Dr. Ann Vanichkachorn.

• What should I do if a member of our household (who is not a student/employee) has to quarantine because they were exposed to COVID-19?

  1. Notify a School nurse immediately
  2. Do not come to campus until you have a conversation with a School nurse to discuss the unique variables about your family’s situation

• What if I have children at both St. Catherine’s and St. Christopher’s and one of them has to be quarantined?

  Please contact each School’s nurses immediately to notify them of your family’s situation. Do not send any of your children to school until you have a conversation with school nurses to discuss your family’s unique situation. The health teams will give you guidance on who should quarantine and when each child can safely return to campus. 

• What should I do if a member of our household (who is not a student/employee) tests positive for COVID-19?

  1. Notify a School nurse immediately
  2. Do not come to campus
  3. The student or employee must quarantine (dates and other quarantine details will be shared by the School nurse) 

• Whom do I contact if my son is being tested for COVID?

  In order to protect your privacy, we request that you only notify the school nurses and/or the divisional head when your son has a presumed exposure or will be tested for COVID. Our school nurses will guide you through the process for testing, quarantine, and contact tracing based on VDH recommendations.
  

  • The student should quarantine at home. 
  • Parents should report their child's absence (not the COVID testing) as you normally do through the divisional attendance office emails or phone numbers. 

• Inconsistent test results: False Positive vs. False Negative

  With any diagnostic test, there is the potential for false negatives or false positives. For existing COVID tests in the U.S., there have been reports of false negative tests in some patients. False negative tests can occur if a specimen was not properly obtained or if a patient was tested too early or too late in their infection. Laboratory error is also a possible cause of false negative test results. 

  
  Conversely, false positive reports are less common. The Virginia Department of Health's stance is that once a person receives any positive test result, it is treated as a positive case and cannot be negated by a subsequent negative test result. Simply put, once a positive test result is received, we must proceed with contact tracing, quarantine, and isolation. 

• Can a student or employee come to school while they await COVID test results?

  No. While a person is awaiting a test result, he/she should quarantine at home.