Virginia Beach Public High Schools have officially eliminated quarantine for high school students effective today.
After working with the Virginia Beach Health Department, Interim Health Director, Nancy Welch says it is now safe for students to be in school and benefit from in-class learning without interruptions from quarantine. “The data has shown us we can walk that path safely and keep the children in school which is so vitally… vitally important by eliminating the quarantine,” Welch said.
Another thing that could contribute to VBPS nixing the quarantine policy is over 60% of high schoolers are fully vaccinated. Also, the exposure to positive rate is extremely low according to Virginia Beach Health District School Epidemiologist Joshilyn Binkley. "Less than 1% of everyone who has an exposure in the school goes on to test positive it’s actually only .07% so a very low rate,” she said. She added, "“We think that can largely be attributed to the large vaccination rate among this group in Virginia Beach — it’s over 60%.”
Both students and staff are still required to wear masks to help prevent the spread of COVID.