Ohio Department of Health tells schools to scrap universal contact tracing for ‘more

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio Department of Health is no longer asking K-12 schools and local health departments to contact trace after each positive coronavirus case at school, instead outlining a new policy in a Wednesday memo that requires contact tracing only for clusters of outbreaks.

“The quick spread of the omicron variant and its rapid clinical course, in fact, have made universal contact tracing, case investigation and exposure notifications impractical and less impactful than taking a more targeted approach,” said Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, Ohio Department of Health director on Thursday, in a press conference during which he explained the change.

Vanderhoff said that the definition of a cluster outbreak would vary, depending on the size of a school. He said that schools need to continue working with local health departments to determine whether an outbreak warrants contact tracing, case investigation, and exposure notification.

“The reality was, there was virtually no school that was able to universally contact trace students all across their district,” Vanderhoff said. “So that’s the focus of the change. The important elements of safety, though, remain in place.”

Those safety elements include local health departments continuing to surveil and watch coronavirus cases and locations of the cases “so that they can engage in appropriate outbreak work, or cluster investigation, including if those occurred at a school,” Vanderhoff said. “Moreover, Mask to Stay, Test to Play remains in place.”

Mask to Stay, Test to Play was the guidance the state released in late October, allowing children exposed to the coronavirus to stay in school unless they started experiencing symptoms of the virus or tested positive. The guidance also included protocols for children to participate in extracurricular activities.

Before the Mask to Stay, Test to Play guidance, Ohio kids were sent home after exposure, meaning parents had to take time off work. State report cards showed remote learning hurt many Ohio children academically.

Leaders of national heath groups have advocated a pivot away from universal contact tracing, and many states are moving in the direction of contact tracing only when there are clusters of outbreaks, Vanderhoff said. While omicron prompted the new contact tracing guidance, it’s unclear what future variants will look like and whether they will spread differently.

The memo also says school districts no longer need to report their coronavirus cases daily to their local health departments. Instead, schools will have to report positive student and staff cases weekly by the close of business on Fridays.

Local health departments will continue to report the cases to the public on the same weekly schedule.

The new reporting requirements will begin Feb. 4.