Province outlines what happens if COVID-19 appears in N.S. schools

The province has released more details about what students, staff and families can expect if COVID-19 is detected in their schools.

Education Minister Zach Churchill and Dr. Robert Strang, the chief medical officer of health, gave a school update Wednesday afternoon.

There is less than a week to go before the first day of classes next Tuesday.

Managing a COVID-19 case in a school depends on the level of exposure, and there will be communication to families and staff right away, said Strang. He said it's important to remember that they are expecting COVID-19 to pop up in schools, but they have the right "package" of multiple health measures to manage it safely.

"It doesn't mean that there's a crisis. It simply means that what we expected to happen, happened," Strang said.

If a case is detected, public health will immediately launch an investigation to determine who their close contacts are and ensure they are getting tested.

Three risk levels carry different rules

Public health has grouped three risk levels as high, moderate and low that each have corresponding responses and rules.

Someone is considered high risk if they are a close contact of the COVID-19 case. That means having very close and prolonged contact with them up to 48 hours before any symptoms. This could include everyone in the class, on their bus, or in their after school program.

Those at moderate risk have not had prolonged contact with the positive case, and they have kept two metres of distance at all times. This might include students and staff in a shared space who were able to physically distance.

An individual is at low risk if they had limited or casual contact with the confirmed case, like walking by someone in a hallway.

To err on the side of caution, Strang said those who are at both high and moderate risks have to self-isolate at home while waiting for their test results. He said that could change as time goes on.

If they get a negative result, they still need to complete 14 days of isolation. If they are positive, they have to be isolated as a case and follow public health guidelines.

Those at low risk don't have to isolate and can keep going to school, while monitoring their own health.

Schools to only close if risk to all staff, students

Strang said it's important for parents to have an isolation plan in place before school resumes in case they need to stay home with their children for 2 weeks.

A complete school closure due to COVID-19 will happen at the direction of public health, and only if there is deemed to be a risk to all staff and students, Strang said. 

Most likely, he said a single case would lead to the closure of one classroom or cohort of classes.

Strang said the goal is to continue with full in-person classes as long as possible. 

"Increased transmission" in a school or community could trigger the blended model for specific schools or families of schools, where grades 9-12 learn from home, Strang said.

When asked about specialists who usually move from place to place, Education Minister Zach Churchill said those people like speech pathologists or substitutes are having their schedules limited to one family of schools.

Ventilation checks nearly done: minister

The Nova Scotia Teacher's Union (NSTU) said Wednesday in a release they believe schools are in a "state of chaos" and aren't ready for reopening. They said some windows still don't open and are continuing to call for smaller class sizes to ensure physical distancing.

In an interview with CBC's Mainstreet Halifax on Wednesday, union president Paul Wozney said he's heard from immunocompromised teachers in the province who are struggling with the decision to either risk their health to go to work, or take a hit to their livelihoods by not working this year.

"We should never have been in the either/or drama that we're in right now. There was a different way to open schools," Wozney said.

Wozney said the union has had no formal discussions or directives on collective action. He said the ball is now in Churchill's court to ensure teachers have the ability to support the safest reopening strategy. If Churchill doesn't go with it, he said teachers will think about the next steps.

"We're really going to have to do some soul searching about what it's going to take this government to do right by kids and the people that work in schools and keep Nova Scotia safe because this plan is a disaster waiting to happen."

But Churchill said complete physical distancing isn't possible in schools without keeping half the students home, which goes against the full in-person plan.

Strang added that there's been an "unfortunate focus" on distancing, and their entire range of measures like masks, handwashing and extra sanitization work together to create the right level of safety.

Churchill said the "vast majority" of checks on school ventilation systems have also been done, and there will be no outstanding ones left by next week. 

Proper ventilation has been cited as a key tool to keep COVID-19 from spreading.

In a statement, Progressive Conservative education critic Tim Halman said the specifics on when and how schools might close came far too close to classes resuming.

He also said managing cases seems to rely heavily on public health, and questioned whether they are ready for an influx of calls, investigations and testing.

It was also announced that the province's attendance policy will be relaxed so that no student is penalized for absences due to illness this year.

More students across the province are also eligible to ride the school bus, due to a student transportation policy coming into effect with new criteria.

Most university students testing negative, says Strang

Strang also talked about the recent COVID-19 cases of university students — one positive and two probable — recently identified by the province.

He said due to the new strategy where all students coming from outside the Atlantic bubble have to isolate for 14 days and be tested three times before heading into the community, "hundreds" have been tested and only a handful were flagged.

This shows the strategy is working and was "absolutely necessary," Strang said.

Probable cases occur after someone gets an indeterminate test result. Strang said that is neither negative nor positive, and might be because they had the virus earlier and some particles lingered even though they're not ill. 

They could have another viral infection that was picked up, or simply be very early in their symptoms. Any time there's an indeterminate result, public health looks to see what their medical history might be and how likely it is they are a new case.

With the probable cases, one at Dalhousie University in Halifax and one at Acadia University in Wolfville, Strang believes they are likely positive and all the normal precautions are being taken, but he said both were following the isolation rules and there should be no risk of public exposure.

A recent positive case at Université Sainte-Anne in Church Point involved an out-of-province student who did not self-isolate, but the university said they were told by public health that no close contacts had been identified and the risk was low.

No new cases reported Wednesday

Nova Scotia Health is reporting no new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, with six active cases remaining.

On Tuesday, 961 tests were done by Nova Scotia Health's labs.

To date, Nova Scotia has 76,935 negative test results, 1,085 positive COVID-19 cases and 65 deaths related to the virus. No one is currently in hospital.

Also 1,014 cases are now considered resolved.

The latest numbers from around the Atlantic bubble are:

• New Brunswick has four active cases as of Wednesday.
• Newfoundland and Labrador has one active case as of Tuesday.
• P.E.I. has zero active cases as of Tuesday.

Symptoms list

Anyone with the following symptoms of COVID-19 should go to this website to see if they should call 811 for further assessment:

• Fever (chills, sweats).
• Cough or worsening of a previous cough.
• Sore throat.
• Headache.
• Shortness of breath.
• Muscle aches.
• Sneezing.
• Nasal congestion/runny nose.
• Hoarse voice.
• Diarrhea.
• Unusual fatigue.
• Loss of sense of smell or taste.
• Red, purple or bluish lesions on the feet, toes or fingers that do not have a clear cause.