‘They continue to be safe’: Alberta education minister tries to ease COVID fears in schools

CALGARY (660 NEWS) – Alberta’s education minister hopes the return of contact tracing in schools, in addition to other protocols, will be enough to ease the COVID-19 concerns of parents, students, and staff.

“All of the measures that are layered on help keep our schools safe,” said Education Minister Adriana LaGrange said Wednesday.

In an exclusive interview with 660 NEWS, LaGrange said despite reports of more COVID-19 cases being found in schools, they are still safe.

“They continue to be safe in this school year, given all of the layering of protocols that we have in place, given the fact that we have vaccinations for [students] that are eligible and for staff as well.”

She’s urging all adults to get vaccinated, adding that is the most important step to help keep kids safe.

Related articles: 

• Contact tracing coming back to Alberta schools

• COVID-19 Vaccines mandatory for CBE employees

• Contact tracing coming back to Alberta schools

On Tuesday, the province decided to reinstate contact tracing in schools. The decision came after months of urgipressure from school advocacy groups and parents.

Parents will soon be able to have a better idea if their child has been exposed to a positive COVID-19 case in school, but it won’t be take effect right away. The province expects contact tracing will be back up and running in about four to six weeks.

Rapid testing will also be offered in K-6 classes in schools that experience outbreaks. The free kits will need to be picked up at the schools.

https://twitter.com/Tommy_Slick/status/1445507232804720641

When it comes to online learning, Lagrange says only nine schools out of the province’s 2,415 have had to transition to online learning, “for operational reasons.”

“At this point in time, we are not anticipating having to transition a larger number of schools to online learning.”

However, she says her office is in constant contact with Chief Medical Officer Dr. Deena Hinshaw’s office and will take her advice on whether a shift to online learning is needed.

“We follow the science. We follow the health recommendations that they put forward to us. If there is a need to go to something more broad across the province or acoss a particular region, we would absolutely do that. We’ve done it in the past and we’ll do it again.”

With files from Angela Stewart and Tom Ross