Contact tracing and positive case notification
With positive COVID-19 case counts at unprecedented levels affecting all of us, our health services staff have needed to prioritize their work in order to stay ahead of an increased demand for services. As a result, they will be shifting from tracing contacts of positive cases to contacting only individuals who test positive and their high-risk close contacts (household members). In order to prioritize those who have tested positive during this surge in cases, we cannot feasibly maintain the staff resources required to maintain the level of contact tracing the district has been providing.
As a part of this shift, schools will no longer be issuing emails, texts, or phone calls to close contacts, nor providing school-wide notifications of positive cases at their school. In order to stay informed on the number of positive cases in MMSD, we encourage visiting the district’s public case count dashboard, which is updated weekly. MMSD data shows there is very low spread of COVID-19 in Madison schools due to rigorous and layered mitigation strategies, and MMSD is one of only a few school districts in Wisconsin who, at any point during the pandemic, provided this high level of contact tracing, far exceeding requirements for schools.