During a COVID-19 briefing on Wednesday, Nova Scotia’s top doctor said there is no reason to shut down any school in the province due to COVID-19 cases.
His comments follow calls from parents at Duc d’Anville to close the school due to a number of recent exposure notices.
Since Sept. 20, parents have received eight exposure notices for the school, six of which have come in the last week.
“Just because of how many cases there are right now, I would like to see the school closed for at least a week,” said Elizabeth Webb, whose son is in grade primary.
“We are all very genuinely concerned about the COVID cases within the school.”
Webb says while the exact number of cases is unknown, she and a group of moms have identified at least nine classes that have had an exposure.
While the school remains, open the surge in exposures is having an impact on attendance. Last Friday, nearly 50 per cent of students were absent, and so far this week still over a quarter of students are away.
On Wednesday, chief medical officer of health Dr. Robert Strang addressed the ongoing concern parents have about their kids in elementary schools.
“I know parents are worried about their children getting COVID, especially if they’re too young to get vaccinated, and I understand that,” he said during his opening remarks.
“Fortunately, for most children, COVID-19 is a mild illness.”
The province’s top doctor also noted that so far, spread of the virus is mostly happening outside of the school, not within classrooms.
“We’re watching for widespread infections and we have not seen that in a school, not even in a classroom,” said Strang.
The chief medical officer said of the 32 schools where cases have been identified, only eight have involved spread to another individual at the school and even then, spread has been minimal.
“Never more than four, the range of secondary cases within a classroom is usually one to two, but the full range is one to four,” he said.
Webb said after the briefing that “parents are terrified.” The single mother says she feels like Strang’s comments did little to address specific concerns for Duc d’Anville, which has had more exposures than any other school.
Webb says she is considering keeping her child home indefinitely and is already looking at homeschooling options due to the constant exposures at his school.
Strang did not single out any one school during Wednesday’s briefing but did say he is comfortable right now keeping all schools open.
“Our goal is to keep students learning in the classroom if at all possible,” he said.
“Even the schools that are most affected, we are not seeing substantive numbers of spread.”
While no school is being closed, schools where two or more cases are identified have increased cleaning and enhanced public health measures, similar to what schools had during the third wave, with restricted movement around the school.
Strang said the greater risk of spread is out in the community, and that cases within schools are often a result of that.
To address that, Strang said the province is rolling out mobile testing clinics and vaccination opportunities in the Fairview Clayton Park area. Testing will be available at the Cedar Event Centre Friday to Monday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
As of Wednesday, the province is also sending testing kits home with all students between pre-primary and Grade 6. Each kit will have four at-home tests, which are intended to be used when a child shows a symptom to allow for easier testing and more early detection of the virus.