The Ohio Department of Health (ODH) produced new documents to assist schools this week. The first ODH document “K-12 quarantine in Ohio” discusses quarantining and the intended goal of having students attend in-person classes five days a week for the 2021-22 school year. The document also discusses mitigation strategies for avoiding quarantining and how schools should handle direct (sometimes referred to as “close”) contacts. The last section provides the process schools should follow to incorporate their local health department for contact tracing, so that the local health department can determine the level of exposure and if the direct contact needs quarantined.
The second document released is the “Face Mask Research” page. This document discusses and highlights some of the laboratory experiments conducted and provides examples of observational studies and epidemiological studies.
Lastly, as citizens are exercising their First Amendment right of free speech, most every aspect of government action has come into question. So, the ODH produced a document regarding the legal authorization of quarantine and isolation. This document runs through the different Ohio Revised Codes that give health departments the authority to quarantine and isolate in different scenarios.
As always, the OSBA division of legal services continues to monitor the legal landscape and will post information as it becomes available. If you have questions, please contact the division at 1-855-OSBA-LAW.