Back-to-school plan could change throughout school year

EDMONTON (660 NEWS) — Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw said the back-to-school-plan is an important first step, but it may be updated as the year progresses.

Hinshaw explained during Thursday’s COVID-19 update that there is no perfect way to resume school, but it is important to get kids back to class.

“I am convinced that it is critical to help our children get back into school in person, and to work on balancing the risks of COVID-19 with the risks of all of the other things that our children face,” Hinshaw said.

Alberta Health Services (AHS) along with school boards will closely monitor classes once school resumes and detect any early signs of concerns that will be used for ongoing evaluation of public health advice and school re-entry plan.

Hinshaw says there is no specific threshold for how many cases of the virus need to be found before a school will be subject to close and that this was done on purpose so that each situation gets a full assessment.

“It’s possible that a social event outside of school results in spread and many students who attended school are impacted either as cases or close contacts. A school outbreak may be declared as a precaution during an investigation with this instance but does not necessarily mean the school environment is unsafe and should be closed,” she said.

“It is entirely possible we could have a school that does need to be closed if we see spread”

“But what I would say is that there are hundreds of schools across the province. We need to take this first step, evaluate, monitor, and if there is something we need to do to adjust, whether it’s adjusting in all of those schools, or adjusting in targeted locations, that’s something, again, that will be part of our evaluation, monitoring and feedback process.

“A single outbreak in a school wouldn’t invalidate the first step the province is taking, according to Hinshaw.

The province defines an outbreak as two or more confirmed cases in staff members or students within a 14-day period.

Parents, staff, and teachers will be notified of outbreaks at schools they attend and informed of a single confirmed case found in their facility.