Manitoba public health sent out a letter Dec. 22 informing parents of R.D. Parker Collegiate students that someone with a confirmed case of COVID-19 was in the school in the afternoon on Dec. 14-15 while they may have been infectious.
The possible public exposure occurred on Monday and Tuesday of last week when students with last names beginning with A-K were attending classes in person.
People with COVID-19 may be infectious for two days before they begin showing symptoms.
The letter says that the initial public health investigation assesses the risk of exposure to be low due to thorough and consistent application of COViD-19 prevention measures.
People identified as close contact of the person with COVID-19 will be contacted and provided instructions by public health staff and testing may be recommended in some cases.
Contact tracing divides people into three categories: close contacts, medium-risk contact and low-risk contacts. The first group includes anyone who spent 15 minutes or more within six feet of a person who has tested positive for the virus. Medium-risk contacts are those who were not that close to or were in the company of an infected person for a shorter period of time.
Close contacts are expected to self-isolate themselves and get tested if they develop COVID-19 symptoms. Medium-risk contacts are asked to self-monitor themselves, including taking their temperature twice a day, for two weeks, while low-risk contacts do not have to take any special precautions beyond those everybody is asked to take because they aren’t at any greater risk of infection than the general public.
The last day of school before Christmas break was Dec. 18 and in-person classes do not resume again until at least Jan. 18 as all Manitoba students from Grade 7-12 will do remote learning only for the first two weeks after the holidays.
Overall there have been seven reported possible public exposures to COVID-19 at School District of Mystery Lake schools, including two at Westwood School (Nov. 16-20 and Oct. 29), one at Burntwood Nov. 16-17, one at Deerwood Oct. 14-16, one at Riverside Nov. 23 and a previous one at R.D. Parker Collegiate on Oct. 15-16.
Anyone whose child develops fever or chills, a cough, a sore throat or hoarse voice, shortness of breath, loss of taste or smell, or vomiting or diarrhea for more than 24 hours is instructed to isolate them from others and seek testing within 24 hours after symptoms appear. The same advice applies to anyone who gets two or more of the following symptoms: runny nose, muscle aches, fatigue, pink eye, a headache, a skin rash of unknown cause or a loss of appetite.
People with these symptoms who do not get tested must self-isolate for 10 days following the start of symptoms. Isolation can be discontinued after 10 days if the person has been symptom-free for 24 hours.
