East Central Iowa News

Quarantine regulations for schools and businesses have been lessened after a new mandate from the Department of Public Health, KIFG reported. 

The new regulations, announced by Gov. Kim Reynolds at a press conference recently, determine who needs to quarantine after testing positive for COVID-19. While those who had gotten close to someone who had COVID-19 previously had to quarantine and keep a close eye on their symptoms, the new rule says that if the person who tested positive and the individual who was close to them both had on face masks the whole time, the close contact won’t be required to quarantine. 

“A common frustration expressed to me was around guidelines for quarantining students and teachers who have been in contact with positive cases,” Reynolds explained, according to KIFG. “Despite their commitment to implementing layered mitigation strategies to protect the health of their students and teachers and staff and to keep everyone in the classroom, in some situations they’re having to quarantine a disproportionately high number of students when just a few positive cases have been identified.”