PHOENIX β The stateβs top health official said Tuesday that schools should be able to quarantine unvaccinated students and keep them out of class in at least some cases when they have been exposed to COVID-19.
Dr. Cara Christ said she still believes the best place for children is in school.
βItβs the safest place for kids,β she said, though she said unvaccinated students should be wearing masks even though state lawmakers have now prohibited districts from requiring their use.
The key is making case-by-case decisions, she told Capitol Media Services.
βI donβt think we want to be taking broad, sweeping, quarantining entire schools if theyβve got a case of COVID-19,ββ she said.
But Christ said there are circumstances where separating out some unvaccinated students β and maybe even some who are vaccinated but have underlying health conditions β may be appropriate when there is a confirmed COVID case in a school.
βIsolation and quarantine does remain a tool thatβs available to local public health (agencies) when they are working with school districts,ββ she said.
That guidance remains in place, Christ said, even after Gov. Doug Ducey, through his health policy advisor, told school districts they cannot require that unvaccinated students be quarantined even if they have had contact with someone with a confirmed case of the virus.
With the spread of the more highly contagious delta variant of the virus, the guidance is again under review, which could result in recommendations for greater use of quarantines, Christ said.
βOne of the things that weβre talking about here at the department is, with how transmissible it is, that all close contacts should be quarantined potentially,ββ said Christ, director of the Arizona Department of Health Services.
βThatβs something that weβre working through right now because we want kids in school. We want to be able to use that as a tool but we want to be able to use it sparingly and work to implement other strategies to prevent spread.ββ
Several school districts and health departments already were resisting Duceyβs directive, arguing that the question on the use of quarantines for unvaccinated students is beyond the governorβs authority.
Christ did not address what Ducey has ordered. But she said the policies and guidance of her department, including the use of quarantine for unvaccinated people who have been exposed, have not changed since the letter from the governorβs office went out to school districts.
She said any across-the-board ban on quarantines is not the right way to go.
βSchools should work with their local public health departments to determine the best course of action if they have cases,ββ Christ said.
The question is particularly important at the lower grade levels where there is no vaccine option, she noted.
But she did say any action has to be reasonable. βWe donβt recommend that itβs just a blanket quarantine of everybody whoβs unvaccinated.β Thatβs where follow up and input from local health departments come in, with decisions case by case, she said.
βThey work on those contact tracing investigations and make specific recommendations for quarantine, βwatch and wait,β all different types of strategies depending on that close-contact specific situation,ββ Christ said. She said that can involve making recommendations to families.
βWhat we want to make sure is weβre not just using unvaccinated status as a sole reason to quarantine people. Thatβs not how public health works.ββ
None of this affects the ability of districts to prohibit students who are infected with COVID-19 from coming to school.
The discussion comes as the number of Arizona COVID cases is on the upswing, routinely topping 1,000 a day, a rate the state has not seen since the end of February. But Christ said thereβs no cause for alarm, because the vaccine is βhighly effective in preventing hospitalizations and deaths.β
Still, just 3.3 million Arizonans are fully vaccinated out of about 7.2 million Arizonans. The latter figure includes those younger than 12 for whom the vaccine has not been approved.
Masks are another highly charged political issue, but βwe have not changed our public health guidance here in Arizona,ββ Christ said. βSo if you are unvaccinated, we would recommend you wear a mask when youβre around people you donβt live with.ββ Ditto, she said, for vaccinated people at high risk.
Thatβs personal for her: She has three children, two of whom are not old enough to get inoculated. βThose two will be wearing masks to school even though the school district is not requiring it,ββ Christ said.