314 children picked up COVID-19 in school setting within Interior Health: provincial health officer

There are now 55 schools across the Southern Interior reporting at least one COVID-19 exposure, which is a 30 per cent improvement from just a week earlier.

According to Interior Health’s COVID-19 school exposures page, improvements are most noticeable outside of the Okanagan. There are still 15 schools in the Central Okanagan reporting at least one exposure, with 11 in Kelowna and four in Lake Country. That’s the same as last week but down from 23 two weeks earlier.

Four schools in the North Okanagan are reporting exposures, with three in Vernon one in Lumby.

The South Okanagan also has four schools with one or more exposures, with one in Penticton, one in Oliver, one in Keremeos and one in Cawston.

During Tuesday’s press briefing, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry confirmed that COVID-19 transmission in schools has dropped since an initial surge at the start of the school year.

Interior Health had the largest increase in child infections as the school year got underway, though school wasn’t the primary point of transmission with COVID-19.

While she didn’t break it down by city, Henry said there were 80 clusters within Interior Health where COVID-19 transmission may have occurred in the school setting during the first five weeks of the school year.

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A total of 314 cases were linked to these clusters, which is about a quarter of the cases among that age group of children in the region. A cluster is two or more cases within a 14-day period, and different from an exposure alert, which is just when a school staff member or student tests positive for COVID-19 and public health will notify staff and students who need to take a specific action, such as self-monitoring or isolation, as a result of a COVID-19 exposure. It doesn’t mean there’s been any spread of the disease.

“So there were 46 schools in the Interior Health Region where a cluster was reported and, importantly, we look at how much transmission is happening, because we want to compare that this year to what we were seeing in the last school year,” she said.

Across the province, Henry said the data shows that on average, the median number of people who were involved in a cluster last year was one to two. This year has seen a slight increase, and the median number is three.

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The fact that the number is staying small is something she said is important to note.

“Across the board, the number of schools affected has been about a third, which is about the same as what we saw last year, and there is slightly increased transmission but it’s mostly controlled,” she said.

“And again, most of the infections, the source of infection for school-aged children is outside of the classroom.”

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Henry also acknowledged the frustration expressed by parents who are concerned by the lag in reporting exposures.

She said in the past week, five children four or under have been admitted to a hospital in B.C. along with one child in the five to 11 age range and one young person in the 12 to 17 age range.

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No children have been admitted to the intensive care unit.

For those who are immunized in the 12 to 17 age range, Henry said hospitalizations are much lower.