Quarantine time shortened for Chicago students possibly exposed to COVID-19

Officials with Chicago Public Schools (CPS) announced on Tuesday that the school system will shorten the amount of time students who have had a possible exposure to COVID-19 will need to quarantine.

Beginning on Saturday, students and staff members who come in contact with someone who has contracted the coronavirus will only have to quarantine for 10 days, opposed to the previously required 14 days, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez said, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The change comes as the school system has noted a decrease in coronavirus case rates and has seen low transmission in schools since the start of the school year in August, the news outlet reported.

In a recent tweet, Chicago Public Health Commissioner Allison Arwady said that while over 15,000 CPS students were identified through contact tracing as coming in contact with someone who contracted COVID-19 from the beginning of the school year through Sept. 25, only 1.6 percent of those students tested positive for the virus.

“What’s good news here is we’re not seeing those numbers increase significantly as we’ve moved from August to October,” Arwady said while referencing the statistics during a Tuesday news conference, according to the Tribune. “And in fact, they’ve been stable or even decreasing.”

According to the school district’s COVID-19 dashboard, nearly 306 staff members and 1,167 students have tested positive for coronavirus since August 29. And as of Tuesday 321 adults and 6,644 students were either isolated or in quarantine.

Martinez said that the new data supports the move to reduce quarantine time, the Tribune reported.

“We’re doing this because that’s what the science is telling us to do now,” he said.