Thousands of students across British Columbia headed back to class Thursday, carrying books, pencils, and likely a bit of apprehension.
Parents across the province have expressed concerns with sending students back to school, as COVID-19 cases climb to unprecedented levels in B.C. On Thursday, Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry acknowledged there will likely be cases of the virus found among school children, but she says there are plans in place to prevent widespread outbreaks.
“We know that there are likely both adults and children right now because we have transmission in our community, who may have the virus and may develop the symptoms and become sick when they're attending school, or at home before they go into school,” she said, stressing the importance of screening students daily for symptoms before they attend class.
“We know that we'll have cases that pop up and we've seen that in other provinces where school has started as well.”
She added that if a student tests positive for the virus, but is not believed to have been exposed to other students, that won't be considered a “school case.”
“Local health officers will be working with every school, so that every school community is aware that there may be a case in their school,” Dr. Henry said. “It may not require anybody else to stay home. If there is a possible exposure, it may be that some of the learning group may have to be quarantined for a period of time, depending on what type of exposure happened, how many people had close contact.”
An outbreak, meanwhile, would be declared when transmission between people is discovered within the school. Dr. Henry said they would issue a public notice only in the event of an outbreak.
“There's a couple of scenarios where we may have to see schools, or groups of people, having to self isolate or close,” she said. “The scenario that I could see happening would be if there's multiple exposures or transmissions between adults in a school setting and there wasn't sufficient staff left to safely operate the school.
“That's what we'll be focusing our measures on, making sure we prevent [outbreaks] from happening.”
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