As of Monday, October 5 there have been more than 200 schools with confirmed cases of COVID-19, 163 in the past two weeks, and 49 outbreaks listed on the Government of Alberta website, but there have been no cases in local area classrooms.
Currently, there is one active case of COVID-19 in Drumheller, two in Wheatland County, and zero for both Starland and Kneehill County.
Superintendent of Prairie Land Public School Division, Cam McKeage told the Mail, “If there were more than two positive cases identified we would take direction from Alberta Health Services (AHS).”
Back-to-school looked much different this year for parents, students, and school staff to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. Some school districts had staggered restarts to allow staff and students additional time to get used to new rules and regulations, including practicing good hygiene, wearing masks, and sanitization.
Of the transition, McKeage said, “We have had a relatively easy start-up for this school year. Protocol and expectations for students and families were shared extensively beforehand, by way of Google Meetings, and as a result there was little concern that was brought forth.”
Even with protocols in place, Premier Jason Kenney said in a press conference on Tuesday, September 1, “It’s always been clear that there would be some outbreaks and from time to time there would be classes or even schools that would have to suspend operations for a while.”
Cases of COVID-19 in schools will not necessarily force immediate closures.
A single confirmed case will place the school on alert status. Parents and guardians of students will be notified of the alert and any measures taken to prevent further spread. Schools will work with AHS for contact tracing.
Two or more cases within a 14 day period, or which can be traced back to the school within a 14 day period, is the limit the province has set for an outbreak to be declared, but even an outbreak will not mean closures.
Parents and guardians will be informed of the outbreak status while government and public health officials work together to contact trace. At their discretion, they will decide whether classes remain in-person or move online.
Should a school have five or more confirmed cases, the outbreak will be publicly reported on Alberta Health’s website.
Whether to close the school, or individual classes, will still be up to the discretion of public health and government officials.
Once an outbreak has been declared, school administration will be informed by AHS Public Health once the outbreak is over; according to Alberta’s official back-to-school policy, “The standard time frame is 28 days with no new cases.”
The school will then need to notify parents and guardians when classes and other extracurricular activities affected by the outbreak will resume, and are encouraged to remind parents of returning students to resume daily screening for symptoms before attending school each day.
While reporting through AHS will be restricted to five or more cases, a non-partisan and non-profit parent-student advocacy group called Support Our Students Alberta has taken the initiative to report on all cases of COVID-19 in schools.
Support Our Students updates their website when documentation of a confirmed case is received by either schools or AHS.