Four COVID-19 exposures have been reported at Greater Victoria schools in the first week of the new school year.
On Sept. 7 and 8, students and staff at Monterey Middle School in Victoria may have come in contact with the virus. A separate exposure also occurred on Sept. 7 at Lake Hill Elementary in Victoria.
Attendees of Journey Middle School in Sooke were at risk of being exposed to a positive case on Sept. 8 and those at Sir James Douglas Elementary in Fairfield were at risk on Sept. 8-10.
The reports are being tracked on a volunteer basis by two moms on their BC School COVID Tracker site, as the province has decided to only publicize COVID-19 clusters or outbreaks this school year, not exposures.
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Island Health defines an “exposure” as an incident when a student or staff member with a lab-confirmed case of COVID-19 attends the school while infectious. A “cluster” is when there are two or more confirmed cases with a 14-day period with evidence of transmission occurring at school. An “outbreak” is when exceptional measures are needed to prevent further transmission of the virus.
Because the cases of COVID-19 in Greater Victoria so far this school year have only been exposures, only the parents and students directly at risk of having been exposed are being notified by Island Health. The BC School COVID Tracker, on the other hand, lists every single school exposure it becomes aware of across the province. Its data, of course, is limited by the number of school community members who send it in.
Black Press Media has reached out to the Ministry of Health for comment.
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