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Burstein: New York State still needs to issue guidelines on COVID exposure in schools

Despite schools being in session across WNY, Erie County's health commissioner says the county has been in need of state guidance on COVID exposure in schools.

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Erie County’s health commissioner says the state health department has been slow to issue guidance on the quarantining of students in school if there is a COVID-19 case.

Without that guidance, the county is coming up with its own approach.

"The state has been promising us guidelines to help local health departments with thinking about quarantining in school settings and they've been telling us it'll be out any day for about a month," Dr. Gale Burstein said.

2 On Your Side went through the online state guidelines for in-person instruction for schools Pre-K to 12th grade, which say schools need to have plans in place to separate a student who tests positive.

But we didn't find specific guidelines about what to do with others around.

"When are we going to start being concerned that these other people in the classroom could be exposed," Dr. Burstein said.

Just this week, Erie County Health released its own guidance on what schools, including colleges, should do with classmates and staff members who come in contact with someone with COVID symptoms or an eventual positive test.

The county is implementing a rule that if the exposure is 60 minutes or more that person will have to quarantine at home for 14 days -- a Covid test is recommended -- and if they're a student, do virtual learning.

"It's not a hard 60 minutes, we have to take many things into account," Dr. Burstein said. 

Those factors include how close people were, duration of exposure and the presence of symptoms.

Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul says the guidance Erie County has been looking for is being developed.

"I'm saying it’s being worked on," Hochul said.

The county has said that the state has made promises for weeks, if not months.

"I'm not aware of a conflict with the County of Erie. They have been our partners, they are on our calls daily, so this is news to me, if they have any problem with how we’re handling it," Hochul said.

What's the status of developing that guidance is it going to be coming out in the next couple of days? 

"I'll be very happy to check on that and see if we can get a time frame for you," Hochul said.

Dr. Burstein says that schools themselves have been informed of this new protocol and that the protocol itself could change, depending on the impacts of the coronavirus.

A spokesperson for Erie County Health said in a statement Thursday: 

"NYSED does not issue quarantine guidance. NYSDOH allows our department and contact tracing program to take into account factors such as duration of contact, proximity of contact and presence of symptoms during case investigations when identifying contacts and placing them into quarantine. NYSDOH may choose to issue additional guidance and we would incorporate that into our contact tracing and quarantine determinations. We have communicated to school district leaders that our guidance is subject to change based on new information and any additional guidance or direction from NYS."

    

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