ST. PAUL - While some Alberta schools have reported that they will not be doing contact tracing over the Christmas break when they are notified about confirmed cases of COVID-19, St. Paul Education Superintendent Glen Brodziak says the school division will be taking a different approach.
While he says he is not going to judge the decisions that other school divisions have made on the topic, since circumstances can vary, the superintendent did confirm that he will be available throughout the holiday break, "and school administrators also told me they would do their part to help keep our students and staff safe."
"We are looking forward to the break and some 'away' time, but we also realize we need to step up to help control the spread," said Brodziak, when speaking about the decision to continue with contact tracing over the holidays.
Alberta Health Services staff are "unbelievably busy" and class lists, attendance records and contact information is kept at the school level. That information is used to determine close contacts when a case is confirmed.
Brodziak believes that waiting until January to inform identified close contacts could have very grave consequences on the overall spread of the virus.
"As a school division, we must do our part in helping our communities be safe."
The topic of contact tracing during the Christmas break - and how some school divisions will not be doing tracing during the break - came up during the Dec. 15 provincial update.
Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw said, "there are reports that some school boards are not going to be able to provide that contact list . . . So we're working with Alberta Health Services to understand what options we have when an individual may be diagnosed with COVID-19 perhaps was infectious while in a class."
Hinshaw acknowledged that a solution was being worked on, but there wasn't a firm answer at this time on how exactly the province will proceed.
