British Columbia’s provincial health officer says rumours and misinformation should be replaced with facts when it comes to potential exposure to COVID-19 among students.
Dr. Bonnie Henry is encouraging parents to recognize that so-called exposure events do not mean their child has been exposed to the illness.
She says parents should not worry unless someone from public health has contacted them.
“We are being very transparent to putting up where those exposures might have happened so that everybody knows that public health is on it and that we are working with you, we are working with the school and that we know who needs to be isolated and who doesn’t,” Dr. Henry said during a press conference on Monday.
Henry says there have been no transmissions or outbreaks of COVID-19 at schools and health authorities follow up individually with anyone who has been in close contact with someone who has tested positive.
She says there have been some exposures among students who have been hanging out in groups during breaks or after school, so parents should tell their children to stay in their cohorts.
Henry says B.C. recorded 267 cases of COVID-19 since Friday and three more people died, for a total of 233 fatalities.
B.C. has had 8,908 cases since the start of the pandemic, and 7,346 people have recovered from COVID-19.
An updated list of current school exposures, as well as other public exposures across the province, is available online at the BC Centre for Disease website.
With files to Canadian Press.
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