District Process for COVID-19 Cases and School Phases

November 13th, 2020 /
Shauna Sprunger /
Coronavirus Disease 2019, News, Updates/Announcements

There have been many questions regarding how the district receives the number of Covid-19 cases in schools, and how those numbers are used to determine movement between phases. Throughout the day, the school nurses are notified of positive and quarantines cases and act on this information as soon as possible. The school nurse then works to confirm that information with the state epidemiology database. If the positive result is confirmed, it is added to the case count at that school. From the handbook released by the Governor’s Office and State Health Department, any school reaching 15 positive cases in a 14 day period does not automatically revert to online learning. However, 15 positive cases in a school prompts the school district and health department to review the situation carefully and determine the next course of action. There are many considerations that are involved when making the decision to change the learning environment and any change is made in conjunction with recommendations by the county health department.

Additionally, when the school nurse is notified of a positive test result, the contact tracing process is initiated. The school nurse coordinates with school administration, teachers, and the identified individual to identify who may need to be asked to quarantine. Individuals are asked to quarantine if it is determined that they have been within 6 feet of the individual for more than 15 minutes. The school nurse contacts anyone who is identified as needing to quarantine and works through the quarantine requirements with them.

The district website updates the current case counts in all district schools every afternoon around 3:00 p.m. Due to privacy concerns, and following guidance from the county health department, the district does not report specific numbers of positive cases or quarantines at individual schools.

We thank you for your continued support as we continue to navigate through the Covid-19 pandemic. Provo City School District encourages everyone to adhere to the statewide orders recently announced by the governor. Let’s work together to keep our students, teachers, and schools as safe as possible.

View current district COVID numbers.