Officials ask close contacts to self-isolate after COVID-19 case identified at Vernon high school

Health officials say they asked around 35 close contacts to self isolate at home after a COVID-19 case was identified at a Vernon high school.

On Friday, the health authority announced one person who had been at Clarence Fulton Secondary School from Oct. 5-8 had tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

The health authority said Tuesday that it has now wrapped up contract tracing in connection with the case.

“Students and staff who have not been contacted directly by public health do not need to take any further action and can return to school,” the health authority said in a statement to Global News.

“The general advice continues to apply to everyone — if you have symptoms of COVID-19 you should take the BCCDC self-assessment test or call 811 and then get tested if it is recommended.”

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Interior Health said no further COVID-19 cases associated with Clarence Fulton Secondary have been reported since Friday’s case.

The single case at Clarence Fulton is the first COVID-19 case identified at an Okanagan school since the new school year began.

The head of the Vernon Teachers’ Association (VTA) is crediting public adherence with COVID-19 precautions with helping to keep the illness out of local schools to a great extent.

“I want to thank the public for doing a really good job in Vernon. I think that is a huge part of it. If there were more cases in Vernon around the schools, then we would see them probably more in the schools,” said VTA president Cori Huizer.

Officials are not releasing details about the case for privacy reasons.

Last spring, students and staff at Clarence Fulton Secondary were also warned of a possible COVID-19 exposure at the school on March 12.

That exposure came days before the province suspended classes across B.C. indefinitely amid the initial novel coronavirus shutdown.

— with files from Jules Knox, Simon Little and Richard Zussman