On Monday, October 5, during St. Louis County’s Coronavirus update, Dr. Sam Page rolled back some current Coronavirus guidelines and restrictions that will impact St. Louis County. Effective immediately, high contact sports, including football and basketball, will be able to play games and compete with other districts, after they have submitted a safety plan to St. Louis County’s Department of Health for review. In the safety plan, districts have to include how each sport will be operating while reducing the spread of COVID-19, by including how they will do COVID screenings, quarantine and isolation guidelines, as well as how spectators and contact tracing will be handled. Once the plan gets approved by Department of Health, school districts can begin to play.

Page also encouraged high schools to allow the option for students to return in-person. “It is not a mandate, just a recommendation,” Sam Page stated during Monday’s update. While no County school districts have yet to publish new district guidelines, they now have the option to allow in person classes for high school students when ready.

All of this comes after new data was released about teenagers, specifically the 15-19 year-old range. The rate of new cases has gone down 16% since September 15, and the positivity rate has dropped from 7.6% to 5.7%. There has also been more testing in the 15-19 age group.

Page thanked St. Louis County residents for wearing masks throughout the mask mandate, socially distancing, and adjusting to restrictions. Without this, they would not be able to rollback restrictions today.

More guidelines and information about Dr. Sam Page’s Coronavirus update can be found on their STLCorona website.