The Brewster Central School District has completed testing for 10% of their in-person population and approximately 17% of our staff. Out of the approximately 355 staff and students tested, two individuals tested positive, leading us to a local .6% infection rate within our school community. A sincere thank you to the students and staff who consented to testing, and to our incredible nurses and support staff who were able to test all of these individuals in a professional and efficient manner. We will continue to conduct bi-weekly testing amounting with at least 20% of our staff and in-person student population through the beginning of March.
Here are some additional COVID-related updates:
Changes to quarantine requirements from 14 to 10 days
● The NYS DOH has adopted a change in the quarantine requirements for those individuals
exposed to COVID-19 from 14 to 10 days. The official notification can be found here.
Please know that although the number of days have been reduced, the following
reminders should still be adhered to:
○ Individuals must continue daily symptom monitoring through Day 14;
○ Individuals must be counseled to continue strict adherence to all recommended
non-pharmaceutical interventions, including hand hygiene and the use of face
coverings, through Day 14.
○ Individuals must be advised that if any symptoms develop, they should
immediately self-isolate and contact the local public health authority or their
healthcare provider to report this change in clinical status and determine if they
should seek testing.
Differing guidance from Westchester DOH vs NYSDOH
The Westchester DOH recently released guidance that differs from NYSDOH (and Putnam
DOH) guidance regarding changes to what would be considered a ‘close contact’ with an infectious individual that requires quarantine. Please know that this change is only forWestchester County.
Both the NYS and Putnam DOH guidance on what factors determine quarantine have stayed consistent.
If your son/daughter is tested for COVID-19 outside of the school-based testing, please report
those results to your son/daughter’s school nurse. We appreciate knowing all results, both
positive and negative. We report these results to the NYSDOH on a daily basis in a
non-personally identifiable manner. Thank you so much.
Daily Health Questionnaire
We will be making changes to the Daily Health Questionnaire for all students and staff
beginning next Tuesday, January 19th. We will be removing the ‘Answer no to all questions
option’ until all users become more familiar with the new questions. An updated version of what
the screener will look like can be found here. Changes include (red denotes new language,
strikethrough indicates that language has been removed):
○ In the last (10) 14 days have you had Close Contact with an individual
diagnosed with COVID-19 or who has COVID-19 Symptoms (Close Contact is
defined as contact with one or both parties not wearing a face mask, or within 6
feet whether wearing a mask or not)?
○ Have you traveled to a non-NYS noncontiguous state (any state other
than NJ, CT, PA, MA, VT), a US territory, or CDC level 2 and higher
country for more than 24 hours in the last 10 days?
[If you answered ‘yes’ to the previous question, and have complied
with the early exit protocol outlined by the NYSDOH (obtained a
Negative COVID test within three days of departure, prior to arrival in
New York; quarantined for three days upon returning to New York;
obtained a negative COVID test on day 4 of quarantine), then you
may answer no to this question
In the last 14 days have you traveled Internationally or Domestically to any of
the Restricted States identified by NYS?
The updated list of restricted states can be found here:
https://coronavirus.health.ny.gov/covid-19-travel-advisory