Hinshaw: Careful monitoring of all school situations

“I think there’s no one perfect way to go back to school and I am convinced that it is critical to help our children get back into school in person and to work on balancing the risks of COVID with the risks of al of the other things our children face,” she said.

She said it’s entirely possible a school needs to be closed due to spread.

“But what I would say is there are hundreds of schools across the province. We need to take this first step, evaluate, monitor and if there is something we need to adjust, whether it’s adjusting in all of those schools are adjusting in targetted locations, that’s something again that will be part of our evaluation, monitoring and feedback process.”

She said she hopes those concerned have read the online toolkit produced by Alberta Education.

“It provides a parent guide in seven languages on what you can do to prepare your child for the new school year,” she said, adding the toolkit contains guidance documents that apply to schools including re-entry, sports and libraries.

She said she also hopes parents, teachers and anyone interested has looked at the resource guide for COVID-19 outbreaks in schools from last week.

Hinshaw noted one specific thing is not included – what has to happen to trigger a school closure.

“Return to in-school learning is complex, and a number of factors will inform any school closure decision,” she said. “In order to ensure that all tools are available to public health and educational teams as would be appropriate for the local context and situation, we are not predetermining specific triggers for school closure.”

Hinshaw thanked school staff, administration, teachers and parents and students for all their work for planning a successful re-entry.

Among the measures outlined by Hinshaw to give the best chance possible at a safe return are:

A requirement that a student, teacher or staff member who develops symptoms at home cannot attend school;
A screening questionnaire parents should give to students each day before school
Anyone who develops symptoms at school must be immediately isolated, sent home as soon as possible and testing should be arranged through AHS

Hinshaw said if there is a positive test result, AHS will identify and contact close contacts of the case and only the close contacts of that particular case are required to isolate.

She said anyone who has been within two metres of a case, for a cumulative total of more than 15 minutes in a day without adequate protection would be considered a close contact. Any contact outside the classroom who shared food or drink or had contact such as hugging or kissing would be considered a close contact.

“Non-medical masks are not considered sufficient protection for a student or teacher who has spent time in close contact in a classroom with an infectious case,” she said. “So a student wearing a mask could be considered a close contact if again they were within two metres for 15 minutes or more in the course of a day. However, each case will be dealt with on an individual basis.”

Hinshaw also said an outbreak will be defined as two or more confirmed cases in staff members or students within 14 days or two or more confirmed cases that are linked to a school setting.

“Parents, staff and teachers will be notified of outbreaks at the school they work at. They will also be informed if there is a single confirmed case identified in their school,” said Hinshaw.

She added confidentiality will be respected while emphasizing transparency at the school level.

Dr. Deena Hinshaw will provide her next in-person update on Monday.

Medicine Hat remains at zero active COVID-19 cases.

Medicine Hat has recorded a total of 67 cases over the course of the pandemic – 65 are recovered and there have been two deaths.

Alberta has a total of 13,318 cases as of Thursday’s update.

The province now has 1,158 active cases, down 18 from Wednesday, and 11,923 recovered cases, up 124.

There are currently 49 Albertans in hospital, seven in ICU. There are 237 deaths, up two from Wednesday.

The province conducted 10,089 tests in the past 24 hours.

In the South Zone, there are 1,726 total cases. there are 18 cases considered active and 1,684 recovered. There are currently three people in hospital in the South Zone, two in ICU, and there have been 24 deaths in the zone.

Cypress County has totaled 31 cases – all recovered.

The County of Forty Mile has 21 total cases, one active case and the rest recovered.

The MD of Taber has 38 total cases — one active, 37 recovered.

Special Areas No. 2 has 13 total cases, all of which are recovered.

Brooks has 1,127 total cases —1,115 are recovered and three active. Brooks has recorded nine deaths.

The County of Newell has a total of 32 cases — three active, 28 recovered and one death.

The County of Warner has 59 total cases. There are now 53 recovered cases, five active cases and one death in the county.

The City of Lethbridge has a total of 145 cases. There are 141 recovered and there have been two deaths. Lethbridge County has 30 cases, all recovered.

The figures on alberta.ca are “up-to-date as of end of day Aug. 26, 2020.”

Read the full Aug. 27 update from the province here.

Saskatchewan reported five new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, none in the South Zones.

Saskatchewan has a total of 1,609 cases, 58 considered active. There are 1,527 recovered cases and there have been 24 COVID-19 deaths in the province.

by Chris Brown

Hinshaw: Careful monitoring of all school situations

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