Miami schools shorten quarantines to 10 days. Those vaccinated don’t have to quarantine.

Effective Monday, students and staff at Miami-Dade County Public Schools who are identified as “close contacts” with a presumed positive COVID case will only have to quarantine for 10 days instead of two weeks.

Those who are fully vaccinated, are asymptomatic and do not live in a group home do not have to quarantine at all and can stay at their school or worksite, according to new guidelines announced to staff, students and families over the weekend.

Also among the changes: Asymptomatic individuals may end their quarantine after 10 days without testing and can return to their school or worksite. Quarantined individuals must continue to monitor their symptoms until 14 days after exposure. If an individual develops symptoms, they must immediately self-isolate and contact their healthcare provider.

Fully vaccinated students and employees will not need to quarantine and can remain at school or their worksite as long as two weeks have passed since receiving a single-dose vaccine or the second dose in a two-dose series. They must also remain asymptomatic after the COVID-19 exposure and they cannot reside in a group home.

Fully vaccinated individuals who do not meet all of those criteria will have to quarantine for 10 days. It is not clear how the district will verify who is vaccinated among students and staff.

District spokeswoman Jackie Calzadilla said the quarantine protocols were revised following medical guidance received by the district’s ad-hoc Public Health and Medical Experts task force at their last meeting on April 13. District officials brought up the topic of shortening quarantines — students and staff have complained they are long and constant — though no definitive decision was announced at that meeting.

Pediatrician Dr. Benny Rub was in favor of shortened quarantines to get students back into school. Dr. Aileen Marty, an infectious disease expert at Florida International University, was hesitant to shorten quarantines if testing was not involved.

COVID cases in Miami-Dade schools appear to be on the decline, according to the district’s COVID dashboard. So far in April, 648 students and 74 employees have tested positive for the virus.