Seven Oaks School Division won't wait for public health before acting on COVID-19 cases in schools

The Seven Oaks School Division says it won't wait for public health to get involved before it acts on information about positive cases of COVID-19 within its schools.

That comes after concerns were raised about delays in contact tracing in cases that might affect school communities in Manitoba.

"To this point, we've deferred to public health. They've been excellent," said Seven Oaks superintendent Brian O'Leary.

"But I think with the increase in cases, particularly in Winnipeg … there are some delays between someone testing positive and then doing the contact tracing and putting the word out to schools," he said.

"I think we may be more proactive in the coming days than we'd been earlier in the school year on this."

Last week, a teacher who tested positive for COVID-19 said she waited five days to get her results, and another three before getting a call from public health. CBC is not identifying the teacher, or the school she works at, to protect her employment.

The teacher said when she notified her principal of her test results, she was told the school had to wait to hear from public health before informing anyone in its community.

Lag in school exposure notifications 

Information posted on the province's website shows notifications sent to parents often come more than a week after potential exposures.

The province has said that earlier in the pandemic, when case numbers were lower, school-aged children were prioritized for case investigations and contact tracing. 

"However, with the increasing number of cases, work is focusing on addressing cases as soon as possible," a spokesperson said in an email to CBC last week.

The province's chief public health officer attempted to address concerns about the lag time between exposures and public notifications on Monday.

"Sometimes this lag is not anything to do with public health.… We know there's a number of people that wait many days before they get tested," Dr. Brent Roussin said at a news conference.

Public health considers a person's symptomatic period to be two days before the onset of symptoms, he said.

"So that can explain why the lag is. We may have got that message out within a day of receiving the positive test … that that person had been symptomatic for, say, over a week." 

The province is increasing its contact tracing capabilities to address a backlog in reporting and tracing positive cases, Roussin said.

Principals not withholding info: superintendent

CBC asked several school divisions within Winnipeg how they respond when they learn of positive cases within their schools. Most said they wait for public health to take the lead.

Some divisions, including Seven Oaks, said if they become aware of cases from sources other than public health, they reach out to health officials directly to speed up the process.

"We are concerned about getting accurate information," O'Leary said. "But at this point now, if we're aware of something, we begin acting as soon as we're aware of it. We're not sitting on stuff where there is a risk to people."

O'Leary pointed to a case last month where school officials became aware that a student who tested positive had attended a party on the weekend. Rather than waiting for public health to confirm, they sent a letter to parents advising them to isolate kids who had attended.

"We just felt that the risk of waiting was far greater than any risk in us taking those steps," he said.

O'Leary said after seeing how health officials have handled school cases over the last few months, he's confident schools can manage their own responses.

"I'm not sure we could have made the judgment earlier in the fall that they would have made," he said.

But now, "we've become accustomed to how public health is judging situations — when they are sending a cohort of kids home, when they're sending just a few contacts home, and when they are just sending a general advisory home."

Divisions open to improvements

Several other divisions said they have also reached out to public health directly after hearing of possible cases in their schools.

The Pembina Trails School Division said it has shared some feedback with Manitoba Public Health and is "open to any improvements approved by officials," a spokesperson said in an email.

The Winnipeg School Division said it is working with public health to speed up notifications, but said school protocols are already in place to protect staff and students, even if there are delays in notifying the public about cases.

"If a staff person or student has any symptoms or is sick, they are required not to enter the school," said division spokesperson Radean Carter.

"The action of staying home when sick should help a lot in mitigating the amount of exposure, regardless of when we are informed of the positive case by Public Health."