RPS discontinues contact tracing, quarantining amid omicron wave

Rochester Public Schools is halting its contact tracing efforts amid the latest wave of Covid-19 cases.

RPS had previously tried to identify all individuals who were close contacts of positive cases as part of its Covid-19 mitigation strategy. Those who were unvaccinated were required to go into quarantine.

But in a letter to families on Monday, the district said it is “no longer able to effectively conduct contact tracing and quarantining” for students and staff who have not tested positive nor have symptoms of Covid.

RPS recorded 564 positive cases in the first week back to school from winter break, including 93 staff members. The one-week tally makes up for 30 percent of the total number of cases since school began in September.

“Given the current spread of Covid within our schools and community due to the Omicron variant, the process of contact tracing and quarantining students is diverting staff time and resources from the efforts to identify and isolate actual positive cases of Covid and to manage Covid testing and other critical mitigation strategies,” RPS wrote to families.

The district said the change is temporary as its works through the current surge in cases. It says it will monitor guidance from state health officials and provide an update to the school board on Jan. 18.

RPS is still asking families to inform schools of positive cases. Students who test positive should continue to isolate for 10 days, the district said.

“We are confident that discontinuing contact tracing and quarantining will provide staff with the capacity to monitor actual cases of Covid much more effectively,” the district stated in the email. “In the days ahead, we will use the improved actual counts of Covid that this change will make possible to make decisions about moving to distance learning at the classroom, grade, and potentially the district-wide levels.”

Sean Baker is a Rochester journalist and the founder of Med City Beat.