COVID-19 Protocols
This page will be updated based on recommendations from the Douglas County Health Department. Please check here for the most up-to-date information regarding Mercy's protocols.
Last updated: February 16, 2022
Douglas County Health Director Lindsay Huse has lifted the temporary indoor mask mandate for Omaha. We want to thank all of you who respectfully followed that mask mandate here in our building. It has been a welcome relief to have a lack of active cases in our building the last few weeks.
Starting tomorrow, February 17, we will return to a “masks optional but encouraged” status for normal activities. We will still require masks when we gather in large groups at school and will continue to follow the DCHD recommendations for isolation and quarantine for Covid exposures and positive cases in our building. Keeping all of our students, faculty, and staff present in our building as much as possible this year continues to be our motivation when making Covid-related decisions.
January 3, 2022
With the rise in positive COVID cases in the metro area, masks are required from January 5 – 18 for all people when inside our building. This policy includes the school day, after school, and evening events. Our goal is to keep students and staff safe and in the building the entire school year. Please continue to wear your mask and social distance even when you are not inside the walls of Mercy.
August 19, 2021
Our goal this year is to have all of your daughters and our staff in the building every day, enjoying as normal of a school year as possible. We have had one positive COVID-19 case in our building in the last week. After consulting with the health department and contact tracing we have 33 students who are required to wear masks this week and next.
This Friday we will celebrate the Welcome Mass and Picnic, which we were unable to celebrate as a school community last year. It is an important tradition for your daughters to experience together, but also a risk, as we will not be able to social distance in our chapel or when we are together as a whole school in the gym. Contact tracing in these two spaces would also be difficult.
"Vaccination is a simple but profound way of promoting the common good and caring for each other, especially the most vulnerable. I pray to God that everyone may contribute their own small grain of sand, their own small gesture of love," Pope Francis said earlier today.
Because we are centered in God and hold both celebrating the Eucharist together in our chapel and care for our entire community with high value, we will require everyone present on Friday to wear a mask when we are gathered in large groups indoors together. I hope no matter what your family’s vaccination plan is, you can see wearing a mask when our community is together as a small gesture of love.
When we walk to the park and are outside, students will not be required to mask unless they were exposed to a COVID-19 positive student. Please make sure that your daughter has a mask with her at school on Friday.
Thank you in advance for your cooperation.
August 9, 2021
Our goal is to keep every student and faculty member in school as safe as possible. With that in mind, we are cautiously moving forward with plans for student attendance and COVID protocols. We know that almost all of our students and adults have had the opportunity to be vaccinated. We strongly encourage all members of our community to be vaccinated. Similarly, we strongly recommend that anyone who is not vaccinated wear a mask when in our building. At this time, we are opening with optional masks. Please know that many people will be wearing masks, not because they are unvaccinated, but because they live with someone who is unable to be vaccinated or is immunocompromised. As a Mercy community, we will treat each other with kindness and respect, no matter which masking option each of us chooses. As a reminder, if your student has been vaccinated, please send a copy of your vaccination card to Mrs. Randone at randonej@mercyhigh.org.
We will follow current Douglas County Health Department guidelines for quarantine and isolation of cases. We received new guidance on Friday, August 6, 2021. If a student tests positive for COVID, they will be required to isolate at home for 10 days without attending any Mercy events or practices. Any students who were within 6 feet of that COVID-positive student for 15 minutes or more may stay at school, but they will have to self-monitor for symptoms and wear a mask for 14 days. These girls may attend practices and other activities at school as long as they remain masked. This protocol does not change with regard to vaccination or masking status. If a student is told that she must wear a mask because of contact with an infected person, our expectation is that we will have the student's full cooperation to comply. If that is not possible or not followed, that student will have to complete the remainder of her 14 days of self-monitoring at home. This is non-negotiable.
It will be very important for every person who enters our building to stay home when they are showing any signs of the virus.
As we did last year, please keep your student home if she has any of the following symptoms:
- Loss of taste or smell
- Onset of shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
- New onset of a dry cough
Or any two of the following symptoms:
- Fever over 100.4 degrees
- Chills
- Cold/shivering
- Muscle pain
- Headache
- Sore throat
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Diarrhea
We have had two students test positive in the last two weeks.
We will not be able to maintain a three-foot distance between students within our building. We will continue with the cleaning protocols between classes.
A few things will return to the way they were pre-COVID:
- Lunches will return to normal this year.
- Students will be allowed to carry Mercy water bottles or clear water bottles
- Students will use their lockers and will not be allowed to carry backpacks to their classes.
- We will not offer any remote learning this year. If a student is sick, she will need to use Canvas to keep up with her classes while she is absent.