Some Winnipeg schools pause community awareness notifications

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This article was published 27/12/2021 (1748 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba families can expect fewer COVID-19 classroom exposure letters in their inboxes throughout the holiday break — not because case counts have subsided, but rather, some school divisions have temporarily scaled back notifications.

In recent days, school leaders in Pembina Trails and St. James-Assiniboia districts have informed parents they will only receive a notice if their child is deemed a close contact of a positive case until in-person instruction resumes in 2022.

A vocal member of Safe September MB called the decision “irresponsible,” citing the stress parents are under to make calls to protect their families, the reality SARS-CoV-2 is spread via airborne transmission, and the highly infectious Omicron variant.

“I don’t appreciate having data obscured from me. It’s very disappointing to know that your postal code will dictate how well the (school) contact tracing is,” said Lauren Hope, a parent and teacher in south Winnipeg, who co-founded the grassroots coalition that advocates for stricter public health measures in schools in 2020.

Schools typically send courtesy notices — standard public health template letters filled in with general information about local cases, including cohort details — to all staff members and families once administration is made aware of a positive test result. Close contacts are also notified about next steps via separate messages.

Winnipeg, River East Transcona, Louis Riel and Seven Oaks continue to send both of the above.

After receiving a Boxing Day notice that outlined a “recent spike” of an undisclosed number of cases at École St. Avila and a temporary hiatus of divisional courtesy letters, one mother said she is feeling ever-anxious.

“This is just very nerve-wracking and it’s kind of ruining our break… I just want transparency. I don’t want to know exactly which kid, I just would like to know where we’re at. There’s no blame game,” said the parent, who agreed to an interview on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.

The mother of two, one of which has underlying health conditions, added her family knows of six positive rapid antigen tests that are connected to the school community. Meantime, no cases are linked to the school on the provincial dashboard.

“We have a few schools where there were a number of community awareness letters sent in quick succession. These letters run the risk of becoming ‘white noise’ when they come out in close proximity. (Chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent) Roussin struck a middle ground when he stated late last week that people under 40 who are symptomatic should assume that they have COVID-19,” said Ted Fransen, superintendent of Pembina Trails, in an email to the Free Press.

“The most important communication with students and staff is the close contact alerts.”

The division has not halted initial community notices altogether; however, only a single such letter is now being issued to families when a series of cases are identified in close proximity.

Fransen said one notice is sufficient because of the length of time that has already passed since school ended for vacation. The final bell before the break rang on Dec. 22.

The latest definition of a school close contact includes anyone who has been unmasked and within less than two metres of an individual who had COVID-19 and could transmit the virus at the time, for a cumulative 10 minutes over a 24-hour period.

(Despite epidemiologists’ pleas to the public to replace fabric masks with medical-grade ones because of Omicron’s transmissibility, the use of non-medical masks is still considered in assessing close classroom contacts.)

The latest provincial school map, which is only being updated once per week throughout the holiday break, shows there were 534 active cases identified among staff and students between Dec. 8 and 21. When classes were dismissed for vacation, three entire schools were operating fully in remote learning.

Despite the holidays, principals continued to send case notices to families over the weekend after being informed about a positive test by either public health or a family, the latter of which has been increasingly common due to a severe backlog.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @macintoshmaggie