The Maine Department of Education and the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Maine CDC) on Wednesday revised the Standard Operating Procedure for responding to a positive case of COVID-19 in schools by suspending the recommendations for contact tracing. 

The previous guidance permitted schools with universal masking policies to suspend contact tracing. Now, regardless of masking policies, schools may suspend contact tracing. Those schools that have the resources to contact trace may continue doing so.

These revisions follow other recent changes from the Maine CDC in light of the transmissibility of the Omicron variant.

Additionally, following meetings between the Maine Departments of Education and Health and Human Services and the Maine School Superintendent Association last week, state officials continue to evaluate potential additional changes to policies to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in schools.

Maine has largely followed recommendations from the U.S. CDC, including for face coverings, over the last year. However, assuming no forthcoming changes from the U.S. CDC and continuing favorable COVID-19 trends, Maine intends to issue its own school prevention guidance following February vacation, likely in early March.

Since the fall of 2020, all Maine pre-K-12 schools have been providing in-person instruction to students. Throughout the pandemic, the Mills Administration has promoted safe, in-person learning, dedicating $329 million in Coronavirus Relief Funding to Maine schools to help them educate Maine students.

The Administration has also provided 10,859,586 face coverings, gloves, and other types of personal protective equipment to Maine schools and has supported COVID-19 testing in schools, including launching a pooled testing program.

The pooled testing guidance has also been streamlined in light of Omicron, and schools have received rapid antigen BinaxNOW tests from the Maine Department of Health and Human Services. The Administration has helped organize vaccine clinics for school staff across Maine and supported more than 500 vaccine clinics for schools and students this past fall.

According to Maine’s Vaccination Dashboard, as of February 15, 54.5 percent of children ages 5 to 19 were fully vaccinated for COVID-19. Data from the U.S. CDC show that Maine ties for sixth best in the nation in the percent of 5 to 17 year olds fully vaccinated. As of the end of October, 83 percent of school staff were fully vaccinated.