Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the isolation and quarantine guidelines have changed, and recently the CDC has updated them again. Starting February 7th, the guidelines at NPHS will follow suit, shortening the quarantine period for students and staff at our school.

When the 2021-2022 school year started, the quarantine guidelines were that if someone was not fully vaccinated and was exposed to someone who is positive with COVID-19, they would have to quarantine for 10 days. However after 8 days, if they tested negative they would be able to return to school. 

Towards the end of December 2021, the CDC changed the quarantine guidelines so that the quarantine/isolation period has now been shortened to 5 days for people who were exposed to, or tested positive for COVID-19. 

When school resumed after winter break, there were over 100 COVID cases in the New Providence School District, but they have decreased severely since then.

According to Ms.Wright, who started working as the new nurse at NPHS on January 3rd: “The cases have been down now which is really good.  I think the new guidelines are going to help kids be in school more and I think that’s good.”

The quarantine and isolation rules that put  students out of school for 10 days left many students falling behind socially and academically.

Sofia Zamora, a freshman at NPHS, was quarantined earlier in the fall: “I definitely did not learn as much as I should have.  Being out of school had been distracting, and it affected my grades. I definitely felt like I was missing out a lot when I had to stay home. It was sad, but I got through it.”

Athletic Director Mr. Carangelo is in charge of COVID-19 procedures at NPHS, and is supportive of these new guidelines.  He thinks they will help everyone slowly transition back to what life was like before the pandemic.

“These are steps to getting back to normal.  As long as we can do that safely I’m always going to be on board,” he said.

He also explained that the change in quarantine rules is a process in the school district: “We do things very methodically here. We’re always going to have discussions, make sure it’s right for our community, students, and staff, then put out the guidance that we think puts us in the best position to be healthy, but also be successful and be here.”

Hopefully with these new guidelines, starting February we will be able to see more people able to get back to school.