Photo courtesy BCTF

By Caden Fanshaw

COVID-19

‘It’s really unacceptable: BCTF sounds off on Northern Health school exposure reporting

Oct 26, 2021 | 4:58 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – With COVID-19 cases in BC schools happening a lot more often this year than last year, the BC Teachers Federation is raising concerns about the reporting of school exposures, or lack thereof.

The worst place in the province for COVID-19 school exposure reporting according to the BCTF, is in Northern Health.

“Families and educators should be able to rely on their district and on the local health authority for accurate, timely information, unfortunately, that’s not happening,” says Teri Mooring, President of the BCTF. “It’s been a concern all along, but it’s even worse now as we’re at the height of COVID exposures especially in the northern part of the province, it’s really unacceptable.”

These findings come on the heels of a recent survey of BCTF members where 71% reported they are not receiving adequate information about COVID-19 exposures and cases in their school and district.

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The BC Teachers’ Federation is calling on the government to:

• standardize definitions of exposure, cluster, and outbreak across all health authorities.
• take steps to address reported delays in contact tracing in all health authorities and in particular the Northern Health region.
• address transparency and consistency concerns by posting and communicating all school exposure notices broadly to school communities.

Why this is so concerning for the union representing BC teachers is because of the inconsistency across the province.

Over 10 COVID-19 cases were reported by parents at Southridge Elementary in late-September, although none were reported publicly by Northern Health. In other health authorities, that cluster of cases may have been reported.

According to the BC School COVID tracker, not even two months into this school year, the number of school exposures reported is slightly over two thousand, in a ten-month school year that would put us on pace for over 10 thousand exposures.

Last school year BC schools only had slightly over seven thousand exposures reported.

CKPG News has reached out to Northern Health for comment.