Isolation and uncertainty defined the past four years of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Families were forced to adapt, focusing on keeping each other safe while attempting to maintain their schedules. For Webb students, it meant potentially falling behind in class work, and for boarding students, relying on the kindness of hosts or emergency contacts for a place to stay.
However, on Wednesday, January 24th 2024, Melanie Bauman, Director of Wellness, announced a pivotal change in Webb’s COVID management policy due to LA County’s updated guidance.
“LA County has finally changed their COVID-19 guidance because hospitalization rates have dropped,” Ms. Bauman said. “COVID is moving from the deadly virus of the early pandemic to a sickness more like the flu, RSV, or common cold. This, along with high vaccination rates in the state and county and even higher vaccination rates at Webb, means that we can change health guidance for our communal living situation as well.”
As such, the following COVID-19 community policies have shifted and will now go into effect:
Most notably, the mandatory 5-day isolation period has been abolished. Before, students used to be forced off campus, requiring them to have a host family or home in case of infection. Boarding students now have the option to recover within the health center, in the comfort of their dorm, or even choose to go off-campus if they decide to.
However, individuals who experience fevers or severe symptoms still must isolate themselves until they are fever free for 24 hours without fever-reducing medication, and the 10-day masking period will remain in effect.
Close contacts to students that test positive for COVID-19 will also no longer have recommended testing, but instead will just be asking to monitor their symptoms.
“This change will provide a lot more convenience, especially for international students who avoided COVID-19 testing out of the fear of being forced to leave campus,” Petrina Ong (‘24) said.
As we begin to enter a period of more lenient COVID-19 policies, it is important now more than ever for students to be in tune with their own health and pay attention to their body wellness.
As stated in the email Ms. Bauman sent to the community, “prioritize your own and each other’s health.”
![Natalie Au (‘26) portraying Pablo Picasso gives her presentation about Picasso’s life and achievements while Anna Park (‘26) records her as part of the project. Other students performing at the central tables in the library speak as their Spanish-speaking figures as well. “I had the most creative freedom during this project out of all my years [of Spanish] and [got] to bring in my passions from outside of Spanish class,” Natalie said. The project was an intriguing scene for anyone who saw students in their costumes; what happens behind the scenes?](https://webbcanyonchronicle.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Duan-spanish-presentations-1200x900.jpg)
