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Masked students sit in a classroom at Worthington Kilbourne High School near Columbus in March 2021. [Daniel Konik | Statehouse News Bureau]

Ohio changes COVID policy for reporting cases in schools and might make other changes soon

By: Jo Ingles | Statehouse News Bureau
Posted on: Thursday, January 27, 2022

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COLUMUBS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — The Ohio Department of Health has changed the way K-12 schools should notify parents about COVID cases in their buildings. ODH Director Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff said it is not worthwhile for schools to alert parents of individual cases of COVID in classrooms or buildings anymore.

“The quick spread of the omicron variant and its rapid clinical course, in fact, have made universal contact tracing case investigation and exposure notification impractical and less impactful than taking a more targeted approach,” Vanderhoff said.

From now on, local health departments will focus on notifying the public of clusters of cases.

And he’s recommending schools continue to require masks be worn inside buildings. But more than half of Ohio’s school districts currently do not require all of their K-12 students and staff to do that.

According to the Ohio Department of Education’s website, 47.9% of Ohio schools required all of their students to wear masks inside buildings.

Dashboard on mask policies of school districts as of Jan 20, 2022. [Ohio Department of Education]

Another policy involving schools might soon change too

Earlier this month, ODH said it had changed its priority for the distribution of rapid tests. The agency said it would send rapid COVID tests first to K-12 schools instead of libraries and health departments as it had previously.

But Vanderhoff said the agency is now considering changing that.

He said the people most at risk of serious effects of COVID are unvaccinated or older Ohioans and people with underlying health conditions. Yet rapid tests that could be used by communities to prevent spread to those populations remain in short supply.

So Vanderhoff said the agency is considering shifting its priority for rapid tests away from K-12 schools.

“We will pivot, as needed, to make sure our limited supply is going to best effect,” Vanderhoff said.

Vanderhoff said the goal was to keep schools open and kids in them. But given the shifts by the virus, it may be better if tests are sent to libraries and health departments as it was at the beginning of January.

The state is expected 480,000 rapid tests that were ordered by ODH for the month of January to arrive soon.

There’s been a shortage of rapid tests nationwide as demand has increased since the Omicron variant took hold shortly before the holidays in December, 2021.