[Murray Parents: MCSD received the following letter yesterday (Dec. 7) in relation to changes being made to school contact tracing protocols – we wanted to keep you in the loop.]

Dear Parent or Guardian: Salt Lake County Health Department (SLCoHD) is changing its school contact tracing protocols. When there is a confirmed case of COVID in a school:

  • In secondary schools (middle, junior, and high schools), health department contact tracing will occur at the classroom level only. SLCoHD (through the school Point of Contact) will send an exposure notification letter to everyone in the class to alert them of the confirmed case in the classroom, but our contact tracers will not reach out to individuals who have been within 6 feet of the positive case for 15 minutes or more.
  • In elementary schools, contact tracing will continue at the individual level. SLCoHD (through the school Point of Contact ) will send an exposure notification letter to everyone in the class to alert them about the confirmed case in the classroom, and our contact tracers (through the school Point of Contact) will individually reach out to people in the class whom the school has identified as being within 6 feet of the positive case for 15 minutes or more.

Any time there is a confirmed case of COVID in a class, it is recommended that everyone in the class wear a mask indoors for 10 days since the exposure occurred, and we encourage students and staff in the class to be tested 5–7 days after the exposure or if they become ill. In addition, in some circumstances, SLCoHD’s outreach to exposed students will be via an online notification and survey rather than a phone call. If you receive a text or email with a survey link, it is extremely important that you answer the survey questions so you and the school know when your child may return to school.

Our community remains in the “high” transmission category, with widespread community transmission occurring. Please get tested if you are ill; testing is essential to identifying cases, tracking spread, and ensuring infectious individuals remain isolated until they are no longer contagious.

The vaccine is the best prevention against COVID, and it is widely available at no cost from:

It is also important that fully vaccinated people receive a booster 6 months (for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines) or 2 months (for Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen vaccine) after their initial dose(s). Boosters do not need to be the same brand as initial vaccines, and they are also widely available, free of charge, at the sites listed above.

Thank you for your help in protecting public health.

Sincerely,
Salt Lake County Health Department