Top Nassau, Suffolk health officials will offer advice to schools
Long Island's top health officials will send guidance to schools regarding COVID-19, offering advice on topics ranging from what to do with a child who has a fever in school to general thoughts on whether schools can reopen safely, officials said Tuesday.
Nassau County Health Commissioner Dr. Lawrence Eisenstein discussed the guidance, a collaborative effort with Suffolk Health Commissioner Dr. Gregson Pigott, during a Newsday Live webinar Tuesday on the reopening of schools.
Eisenstein said the list will be presented in the form of frequently asked questions — about 10 of them over five pages — that largely reflect the state guidance.
One question Eisenstein said he frequently hears is what a school should do with a student who shows a fever.
"Obviously if a child is sick they should be isolated," Eisenstein said, noting that schools are required to have a separate room for children in such situations. But Eisenstein added that many districts have asked parents to screen their child for fever every morning and, if the child has one, to keep the child at home and seek a doctor's opinion.
Elsewhere, Eisenstein said he continues to be asked whether he believes schools can reopen safely.
"In general, disease transmission in the community remains relatively low right now," he said. "If people and faculty and everybody plays their part — wearing masks, staying home when they're sick, not sharing food or drinks, distancing — I think we can safely open schools."
Pigott said the questions and answers often focus on specific scenarios that the state guidance, a broad document, did not address. For example, one question deals with what to do when a child, whose parents have active cases of COVID-19, is found riding on a school bus.
"The child should be home in quarantine," Pigott said. "We would have to pull them off the bus."
Eisenstein also said the county health departments will take an active role in contact tracing.
"The health department will be doing the contact tracing should a faculty member or student have a confirmed case," he said. "But we need help from the schools on such questions as who are the students in the class, who rides the same bus."
He added, "Just because there's a case in the school doesn't mean the school needs to shut down. It doesn't mean a whole classroom has to shut down. An investigation is needed."
Craig Schneider is a Long Island native and Stony Brook University alumnus. He joined Newsday as a general assignment reporter in January 2018 after 20 years at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
