Union County Schools End Contact Tracing, Curtail Quarantining

MONROE, NC —The Union County Public Schools Board of Education voted Monday to change its COVID-19 protocols, and now only will require children who have tested positive for the virus to stay home from school, multiple sources reported.

In an early-morning virtual emergency session, the board voted 8-1 to end contact tracing and significantly curtail coronavirus quarantine requirements within the district. The decision is effective immediately, board chairperson Melissa Merrell said, according to the Charlotte Observer.

According to its website, the district includes 20 elementary schools, nine middle schools, 11 high schools and three specialty schools.

WSOC-TV reported that Union County schools do not have a mask requirement for students and staff, though masks are required on school buses.

As of Friday, the station reported that 479 students and employees in the the district had tested positive for the virus and 7,285 were in quarantine.

Now, many of those in quarantine are allowed to return to school, even those who have come into contact with somebody who has tested positive for COVID-19. Merrell told the Charlotte Observer that only students who appear on the positive list themselves or are showing symptoms now must stay home.

The Charlotte Observer reported that the change in COVID-19 protocols is against the advice of the Union County Health Department and the state and federal recommendations on reducing COVID-19 risks in the classroom.

On Friday, a letter from Union County Public Health Director Dennis Joyner encouraged the board of education to follow North Carolina's COVID-19 health protocols, according to WCNC.

Dr. Benny Joyner, vice chair of safety at the Department of Pediatrics at UNC Children's Hospital, told WSOC-TV that parents are incorrect if they believe COVID-19 does not affect children,

"I would say (those parents) need to come into my ICU. I've got six, now five, critically ill pediatric COVID patients. Two of them have breathing tubes inserted to basically breathe for them. Two of them are infants," Benny Joyner said.

Benny Joyner continued: "What I would say, the delta variant has really made the respiratory phase of the illness much more prominent than before. We have young men and women who are just struggling, gasping to breathe, unable to complete sentences. We have little babies on breathing machines who are heavily sedated from COVID - it's a challenge."