Families and caregivers with children attending Chatelech Secondary School in Sechelt have been notified of two COVID-19 exposures.
A letter was circulated by superintendent Patrick Bocking on Jan. 31 confirming an individual tested positive for COVID-19 and attended the school Jan. 26. No further details were provided about the case “in order to provide privacy.”
On Feb. 1, the school community was notified in another letter about a second exposure.
The individual attended Chatelech on Jan. 13, 14, 18, 21 and 25.
In a follow-up interview, Bocking said of the two exposures that “Vancouver Coastal Health has said they are separate issues.”
He added the separate cases are not due to in-school transmission.
When asked whether they affect separate learning groups, he said, “there could be some overlap for some individuals but they are separate cases.”
Contact tracing has been completed for both exposures. And any learning groups and classes affected have been deemed “at low risk” and asked to self-monitor for symptoms.
Instructions on how to self-monitor have been provided by the health authority.
Bocking told Coast Reporter the school is not taking additional precautions, given transmission isn’t occurring at the school.
“We continue to have all of those really strict measures in place that are all guided by the Ministry of Health,” he said. “If they give us any other direction … of course we would follow those very carefully.”
The letters also specified, “if you have not received a call, you are not required to self-isolate and are at low risk and can return to your normal daily activities.”
School remains in session, Bocking said in both letters, and “if you have not been asked to self-isolate by VCH, it is safe for your child to return to school. In almost all school exposures in B.C., it has remained an isolated case and transmission has not occurred.”
“We are very proud of our staff and students for their consistent use of health and safety protocols during this pandemic and look forward to continuing to provide an excellent and safe education,” said the letters.
These are the first two exposures at Chatelech high school and the third reported exposure at the district. The first occurred Jan. 7 and 11 when a member of the Elphinstone Secondary School community attended the Gibsons high school while COVID-19 positive.
As of Feb. 1 the first Chatelech exposure had been reported on VCH’s dedicated school exposure webpage.
More information about COVID-19 and School District No. 46 can be found on the district’s dedicated webpage at https://sd46.bc.ca/
