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DeWine Says K-12 School Study May Challenge CDC Guidance

Governor Mike DeWine says the state will launch a study of k-12 students to see if the current application of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's definition of "close contact" may be causing students to unnecessarily miss school.  

The current guidelines say students who have spent more than 15 minutes close to another person who tested positive must quarantine, whether or not the student was wearing a mask at the time.  DeWine says the state study will use the new rapid tests promised by the White House last week to see if the CDC protocol is too strict.

"We're gonna take ten - we think ten - school buildings in the state, and what we're going to do is we're gonna test those individuals who meet that criteria, who would normally have been quarantined, and we're going to follow them with very frequent strip tests, these new strip tests."  
DeWine says the state will not consider altering the guidelines until the data shows that it's safe. He says he is responding to concerns from school district superintendents.

A native of Chicago, naturalized citizen of Cincinnati and resident of Columbus, Alison attended Earlham College and the Ohio State University. She has equal passion for Midwest history, hockey and Slavic poetry.
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