392 New COVID-19 Cases Reported Within Greenwich Public Schools

GREENWICH, CT — In the first update back from the holiday break, Greenwich Public Schools is reporting 392 new cases of COVID-19. The previous high in a single update was 147 on Dec. 24.

Several data points have not been updated on Tuesday in order to allow the district's health care team to update their records, the district said.

Case numbers for Central Middle School, Western, International School at Dundee and New Lebanon School have not been included. A breakdown of cases among students, staff and service providers was also omitted.

As a result, the tracker shows 295 cases are affecting every school in the district, with Eastern Middle School seeing the most cases at 49.

Sources of transmission (in-school, outside of school) were also not included, however, in a letter to parents on Sunday, Superintendent Dr. Toni Jones said the vast majority of COVID-19 positives are coming from outside transmissions in the community.

The latest update comes as cases continue to surge both locally and around the country due to the more contagious omicron variant, and holiday gatherings.

View the entire GPS COVID-19 tracker here.

Updated District Guidelines

In her letter, Jones outlined several measures the district is taking to "slightly tighten mitigation strategies for at least the month of January."

Updated guidelines for the district include:

• All school sites are re-evaluating the lunch mitigation to make sure that ample space is being instituted between students when masks are off.
• All school sites are limiting individuals who may enter the building to only essential volunteers or consultants (through January)
• Greenwich High School will re-open a gym for expanded lunch space
• GHS will add a fifth lunch rotation to reduce the number of students eating at one time (beginning Tuesday)
• Aquatics class at GHS will be temporarily suspended and pool safety and other curriculum will be substituted (to be evaluated again at the end of January). This change does not impact after-school athletics.

New Guidance On Isolation/Quarantine

GPS will also implement new CDC and CT Department of Public Health guidance on five-day isolation and/or quarantine for students and staff.

For those who test positive for COVID-19

• Stay home for five days
• If you have no symptoms or your symptoms are resolving after five days, you can leave your house
• Continue to wear a mask around others for five additional days
• If you have a fever, continue to stay home for 24 hours until your fever resolves

For those with COVID-19 symptoms, regardless of vaccination status:

• Test for COVID, either self-test or at a testing site, and stay home
• If test results are negative, return to activities when fever-free for at least 24 hours and other symptoms are significantly improved
• If test results are positive, isolate for at least five days, return to activities on Day 6 or later when fever-free for at least 24 hours and other symptoms are significantly improved
• Wear a mask at all times when around others for an additional five days when returning to activities

Remote Learning Questions

Jones said she has received many questions from the community about remote learning. However, by law, the district cannot go to full-remote without an order from Gov. Ned Lamont, or through legislative action.

"For Grades 6-12, if a student is placed in quarantine for health-related reasons by the health care team, the student should have access to watch the class virtually. For Grades PK-5, work will be sent home for those in District-issued quarantines or isolations," Jones said.

COVID-19 Test Kits

Gov. Ned Lamont announced on Tuesday that the state has distributed 670,000 COVID-19 rapid self-tests to public and private K-12 schools and early childcare providers statewide. Lamont said this allocation is the first phase of his administration’s distribution of self-tests for schools and early childcare providers, and he anticipates additional allocations to be announced in the coming days as the state continues securing more tests from vendors.

A total of 620,000 of the tests were given to public and private K-12 schools, and the remaining 50,000 were given to early childcare providers. Schools and early childcare providers began picking up their assigned allotments from the state’s five distribution centers this morning.

Greenwich Public Schools received 5,580 rapid tests. To read more on tests in the district, click here.