Confirmed Cases

Case and Exposure Notification

April 29, 2022

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health recently broadened its definition of who is considered a “close contact” of someone confirmed to have COVID-19 and is therefore exposed. This revision significantly expands the number of people considered to be exposed to a positive case, and changes how we report COVID-19 exposures to the campus community.

For reference, here is the new definition compared with the previous version:

Close Contact – New Definition	Close Contact – Prior Definition
Sharing the same indoor airspace with a COVID-19-positive individual for a total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period while the individual was infectious.	Being within 6 feet of COVID-19-positive individual for a total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period while the individual was infectious.

How Will this Increase the Number of Exposures?

• Previously, in an indoor or outdoor classroom setting, for example, only those sitting within six feet of a student who tested positive would be considered close contacts under the prior definition. That would have been three or four people in a typical case.
• Now, under the new rules, the entire indoor class is considered to be exposed and must be notified, which will typically be a much higher number.

This will significantly increase the number of exposures that will be reported to the campus and recorded on this website. We want to make sure everyone is aware that the change was due to different criteria and not due to a significant increase in cases on our campuses.

This change applies to the following positive cases that were reported to the district in April:

Date Reported	Student/Employee	Campus	Number of people notified of exposure
April 25	Student	Valencia	23
April 25	Student	Canyon Country	24
April 22	Student	Valencia	12
April 21	Student	Valencia	3
April 19	Student	Valencia	17
April 19	Student	Valencia	24
April 19	Student	Valencia	24
April 18	Student	Valencia	17

In each of these cases, the person who is COVID-19 positive, contacted the COVID-19 Officer/compliance team. They are required to isolate for 10 days from the start of symptoms  On the fifth day, if their symptoms are improved they can take a COVID-19 test. If the test is negative, they are able to leave isolation on the sixth day and must wear a high-grade mask for the duration of the 10 days. If they test positive, they must continue to isolate. All test results must be sent to the COVID-19 compliance team.

All those individuals considered to be exposed were notified, told to monitor their symptoms for 10 days and be tested for COVID-19, three to five days post exposure. However, they do not need to quarantine unless they develop symptoms. If they develop COVID-19 symptoms they must notify the COVID-19 compliance team at (661) 993-7670 and get tested for COVID-19 as soon as possible. Free testing is available on both campuses.

Thank you for your patience as we continue to update our COVID-19 processes in response to changes from county, state, and national health officials.

– Incident Command Team