The state health commissioner is calling on schools to make sure they’re fully following Indiana’s quarantine rules. During Wednesday’s press conference, Dr. Kris Box said she’s gotten reports of schools abandoning quarantine protocols for COVID-19 exposure in the classroom.
“The science clearly shows that quarantine helps prevent further spread of COVID-19,” Box said. “We continue to recommend, as the CDC does, that all individuals who are in close contact adhere to the CDC’s quarantine recommendations, so that we can continue to move Indiana in the right direction and keep our schools open and safe.”
Box said the issue is especially complicated in the eastern part of the state, since Ohio has eased quarantine requirements for classroom exposure. “That is not where Indiana has gone, based on having this mutation and the very high spread that we have had,” she added. “Now, that is improving and we’re really glad to see that, but we still do have high community spread in many areas across our state.”
Even locally, some schools had been allowing staff members who were considered close contacts to keep working if they didn’t have any symptoms because the Indiana Department of Health classified them as critical infrastructure workers. But unlike first responders, teachers are not yet eligible to get the COVID-19 vaccine in Indiana.
