HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Ten percent of students will have to be randomly tested for Covid-19 every two weeks, according to Department of Public Health and Social Services.
The agency released guidelines for schools as more students return to school campuses, something the governor authorized to begin last week Monday. Schools were given some flexibility in terms of when they could open school campuses to students, depending on whether they met all public health existing guidelines.
DPHSS released guidelines specific to this reopening of campuses this month that seems to take into consideration the more transmissible delta variant of the SARS-CoV-2. Schools have up to 90 days to begin administering the random tests once plans are approved for implementation. Consent forms for screening and testing will be provided to parents and guardians.
Guam has seen a surge in Covid-19 cases that started in late July and continued to grow in August, leading the governor to shut down schools.
According to the Joint Information Center’s Saturday night report, there were 31 new cases of Covid-19 confirmed out of 383 tests conducted Sept. 24. Additional results are pending analysis and submission from other clinics and will be reported on Monday, JIC stated. That increases Guam’s total number of cases to 14,279 officially reported cases, that’s roughly 9% of Guam’s 165,000 person population.
There are currently 3,090 people in active isolation. There are 64 Covid-19 patients in local hospitals, a slight decrease from what the island has been seeing in recent weeks with upwards of 80-plus Covid-19 patients on some days; 37 of those patients aren’t vaccinated and five cases are unknown.
Daily checks
According to the DPHSS memos, schools will have to conduct daily screening of symptoms among students, teachers, and staff to identify those who may be contagious so that measures, such as testing for Covid-19, can be taken to prevent further transmission.
“Schools shall adopt a testing strategy that provides testing on a regular basis (especially to those individuals who are not fully vaccinated) and where results are reported rapidly,” the DPHSS memo states. “Furthermore, screening testing should be promoted to those students, teachers, and staff who are not fully vaccinated.”
DPHSS notes that schools must takes steps to maintain confidentiality of results and protect privacy of students, teachers, and staff.
Students and personnel who test positive will have to be isolated and can’t return to school until they’re cleared.
If a student or school personnel are identified as close contact to a confirmed Covid-19 positive individual, they must quarantine for 10 days and not report to the school site if unvaccinated.
“Quarantine may be discontinued after day seven if the close contact tests negative 5-7 days from last date of exposure, and if verified by DPHSS to be negative and asymptomatic; and for individuals who are fully-vaccinated or who were previously diagnosed with Covid-19 within the last 90 days and are asymptomatic, there is no need to quarantine; however, if vaccinated should get tested 3-5 days after your exposure, even if student does not have symptoms,” the memo states.
GDOE Deputy Superintendent of Operations Erika Cruz said public schools have existing mitigation plans in place and have been able to adjust them as needed to meet DPHSS requirements.
DPHSS is working with schools on their plans, officials have said.
