Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) says any confirmed cases of COVID-19 at School District No. 46 (SD46) schools will be posted online on the health authority’s “exposures in schools” webpage.
The confirmation comes after parents who attended a town hall meeting last Thursday with a VCH medical health officer were left with the impression that not all known cases of COVID-19 at schools would be publicly announced, contrary to a provincial announcement made two weeks ago.
During the Sept. 24 virtual town hall, Dr. Mark Lysyshyn told parents public notifications wouldn’t be necessary “if it’s a small number of people and we’re able to contact them directly through a phone call and let them know they need to isolate,” citing the need to maintain confidentiality under the Public Health Act and a concern people won’t get tested if they fear results will be made public.
Following the town hall, VCH confirmed with Coast Reporter that if an exposure occurs, all identified contacts will be contacted directly by the health authority through an email and letter, and all notifications are posted to the VCH school exposure website, as outlined in a joint-statement by provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry and VCH chief medical health officer Dr. Patricia Daly.
VCH told Coast Reporter the statement would be sent to SD46 “to ensure there is no confusion.”
On Sept. 16, a Ministry of Health announcement said health authorities would post whether an “outbreak, cluster or exposure” had occurred at a school on a dedicated webpage. The Fraser Health authority was the first to make all known cases public online, defining exposure on its webpage as “a single person with lab-confirmed COVID-19 infection who attended school during their infectious period.” Since then, the health authority has listed 20 exposures.
VCH, on the other hand, had posted only one school on its webpage on Sept. 23, even though two other schools in the health authority region had sent notifications to parents about exposure events. All the schools were on the Lower Mainland.
On Sept. 24, Dr. Bonnie Henry responded to questions about why VCH wasn’t posting all exposures publicly. She said it has taken time for health officials to become consistent across the province, but confirmed all school exposures would be posted.
Henry said making all school exposures public was important because “it provides public information that helps you understand what is happening in our school communities around the province, allows parents to know where exposures are and have confidence in knowing that if they have not been contacted, their family has not had an exposure in the school community.”
As of Sept. 28, VCH has listed seven schools with exposures, with none on the Sunshine Coast.
– With files from Jane Seyd, North Shore News
