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.”
![Student researcher Elaine Tang (‘24) created a comic for the Fossil Fest to explain the two ways fossils are formed in a tarpit. “I chose to explain my research by comic because there are a lot of kids coming to the [Fossil] Fest,” Elaine said. “They are all very interested and even painted on my comic with their favorite colors.” Fossil Fest is one of the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology Discovery Day events during which scientists and museum visitors are invited to celebrate paleontology.](https://webbcanyonchronicle.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/9eae070d6f5f12b684fd6d4ff457a01.jpg)
![Blue, white, and gold colored balloons surround the doorway to the new Bonnie Johnson Hall. Dr. Theresa Smith and Blake Johnson pose with large scissors, prepared to cut the ribbon as many faculty, alumni, and others watch and applaud. “I look at [the science lab] as a space where students are pursuing their own scientific questions, where they can collaborate with their other peers, and where discovery is happening,” said Lisa Nacionales, Science Department Chair.](https://webbcanyonchronicle.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Smith_and_Johnson.HEIC.jpg)
