DD2 following state guidelines for COVID-19

DORCHESTER COUNTY, S.C. (WCSC) - Dorchester District Two Health Officials say they will continue to let DHEC take the lead when it comes to COVID-19 Guidelines for the year.

The district says they have reviewed guidelines at the state level, and feel prepared to keep students safe.

The district’s director of nursing, Amanda Santamaria, says it’s about keeping mitigating strategies in place.

She says they will be encouraging handwashing, testing, and staying home when sick.

They will also be continuing to inform parents about the signs and symptoms of COVID-19 and making sure students stay home for the correct amount of days after testing positive.

Students and staff who test positive have to be isolated for five days from the onset of symptoms, or positive test.

They can then return to in-person learning for days six through ten with a mask.

She says they will not be contact tracing at this time because DHEC does not have exposure policies in place for schools.

They will also no longer be updating their COVID-19 dashboard.

“DHEC is no longer requiring that we report positive cases unless we reach a certain threshold and have an outbreak,” Santamaria said. “So, we are not going to be posting our dashboard at this time.”

As for the recent Monkeypox outbreak, she says they are cautiously monitoring, but as of now, the same mitigation strategies in place for COVID-19 will work against monkeypox as well.

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