With two million students, teachers and other education workers heading back to class this month, confirmed cases of COVID-19 will almost undoubtedly appear in the province’s school system.
The Ministry of Health has laid out detailed guidelines on what’s to happen when staff or students show symptoms of COVID-19, or test positive for the coronavirus. School administration, the school board and the local public health unit all play roles in a response that can — if there’s evidence that infections are spreading — include shutting down schools.
Here’s the plan in a nutshell.
When someone shows symptoms at school
Parents are being told not to send their kids to school if they are showing symptoms of COVID-19. If a student starts showing symptoms during the school day, the principal is to contact the parents immediately to arrange a pickup as soon as possible. In the meantime, the child is to isolate, and staff caring for the child are to wear full personal protective equipment.
The school principal must ensure the space and materials used by the ill student are cleaned, that staff are informed of the situation, and the rest of the school population is monitored for symptoms.
Students, teachers or education workers who test positive are to self-isolate for at least 14 days and are not to return to school until cleared by their local public health unit or health-care provider. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press)
The parents of the ill student will be encouraged to get their child tested for COVID-19. The student must not return to school while waiting for test results, but can attend virtually if they feel well enough. Even if the test result is negative, the child is still not to return to school until 24 hours after their symptoms have resolved.
While the province doesn’t want schools to bombard public health units with a report on every student with the sniffles, the system will be keeping a close eye on rates of absenteeism. School attendance is to be reported daily to the local public health unit and the Ministry of Education.
When someone tests positive
If a case of COVID-19 is confirmed among a student or a staff member, the provincial guidelines say the public health unit handling the case will notify the school. The guidelines also say the school is responsible for reporting any confirmed or probable case to the local public health unit and to the Ministry of Education.
Information is to be posted publicly on the school board’s and school’s website, but the individual is not to be named.
“Parents, students and staff have an understandable interest in knowing when a COVID-19 positive case has been identified in their school,” the provincial guidelines say.
Those who had close contact with the confirmed case while infectious — whether by being in the same class, on the same school bus or attending the same after-school care program — are to be informed directly.
If a case is confirmed, public health units are to contact the parents of students who were potentially exposed, whether on a bus or in the classroom. (Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press)
Contacts of a confirmed case
The public health unit determines the risk that various students and staff were exposed to the virus according to their level of contact with the person who tested positive. To allow for tracing, the school is required to provide public health with such information as class lists, attendance records and parental contact details.
Anyone in the same classroom cohort as the confirmed case will generally be considered to be at high risk of transmission. Parents of those children are to be notified immediately.
Everyone considered at high risk of exposure will be directed to self-isolate, and will be encouraged to get tested for COVID-19. However, even if they test negative, they are still to self-isolate for 14 days from the last contact with the confirmed case.
Those considered to be at low risk of exposure are to self-monitor for symptoms and can return to school.
If a student or staff member clearly contracted COVID-19 from someone outside the school and was not at the school while contagious, their cohort will not be required to self-isolate.
If there are two or more confirmed cases among students and/or staff in a school within a 14-day period, public health must declare an outbreak. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)
When multiple students or staff test positive
If there are two or more lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases among students and/or staff in a school within a 14-day period, public health must declare an outbreak, provided that the cases appear to have “an epidemiological link,” such as being in the same class, the same after-school care group, or the same school bus.
The public health unit decides which cohorts in the school should self-isolate by being most at risk from the outbreak.
“If public health advises that a class, cohort or a school should be closed for a period of time, parents, students and staff will be notified immediately,” say the provincial guidelines.
The outbreak can be declared over once 14 days have passed with no evidence of school-related transmission, so long as no one who was exposed to the initial outbreak is still awaiting test results.
Anyone who tests positive for COVID-19 is to remain in isolation for at least 14 days. (Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press)
When will school closures happen?
As a result of an outbreak, a school may be closed, but not necessarily. There is no firm threshold for a number of cases to trigger a closure. It’s a judgment call, and public health officials make that judgment.
The provincial guidance says closing a school “should be considered if there is evidence of potential widespread transmission.” That could include any number of cases among students and staff “with no known source of acquisition outside of the school.”
If a school is closed, public health may recommend testing for everyone from the school.
The school may be reopened even if the outbreak is not fully over. “Cohorts without evidence of transmission can be gradually brought back to school as additional information and test results become available,” say the province’s guidelines.
When can you return to school after testing positive?
Anyone who tests positive for COVID-19 is to remain in isolation for at least 14 days. A student or staff member should not return to school until they are cleared by their local public health unit or health-care provider, the province says.
What if a parent or sibling tests positive?
Parents who contract COVID-19 are encouraged to tell their children’s school, but it’s not a legal requirement. However, the province advises that everyone living in the household with a person who tests positive should self-isolate, and the children should not come to school, for 14 days.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
