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“We’re shifting toward a more targeted (symptoms) list . . . we must strike a difficult but necessary balance in responding to COVID-19 and also limit the harms our restrictions might cause,” said Hinshaw, adding the move aligns with policy in B.C., Ontario and Quebec.
But those with symptoms of loss of taste, fever, shortness of breath must still quarantine for 10 days or test negative before returning to class, she said.
The moves come as the number of CBE students and staff that have had to isolate since the start of the school year hit 5,500 and 500 respectively.
On Thursday, Hinshaw said there are 730 active cases linked to Alberta schools with active alerts or outbreaks at 249 schools, or 10 per cent of the province’s total.
There have been 87 in-school transmissions, said Hinshaw.
That announcement came as 477 new cases were reported provincewide on Wednesday, along with five more deaths from the virus, bringing the total number to 318, one of them a man in his 40s in the South zone.
Three of the deaths were in the Calgary zone involving patients in their 80s and 90s, with two of them in long-term care.
An outbreak at the Calgary Correctional Centre continues to worsen, with the number of infected inmates rising from 70 to 100 in the past day, while 18 staff members have tested positive.
The Opposition NDP said the province’s decision to relax the school symptoms list is a step backwards in protecting students and staff amid a series of outbreaks they blamed largely on provincial policy.
