Contact tracing still happening over break, Catholic school board says

Superintendent denies process paused after AHS emails suggest otherwise

The Calgary Catholic School District says it has continued to assist Alberta Health Services with contact tracing of cases within schools over spring break, despite internal AHS emails that suggest otherwise.

In internal AHS emails shared with Postmedia, officials say the CCSD had informed them at the start of spring break that they would not take calls from contact tracers relating to cases of COVID-19 identified at the schools, even if the cases are variants of concern.

The emails said the district would resume taking calls from contact tracers April 12, after students and staff return from spring break.

In a series of statements, CCSD spokeswoman Sandra Borowski said the Catholic district works collaboratively with AHS to complete contact tracing, and said school principals and AHS staff have followed up with close contacts of cases over spring break.

“The Calgary Catholic School District has and will continue to support AHS in their efforts and responsibility to complete contact tracing,” Borowski said. “For additional safety, CCSD does a parallel process of contacting families in addition to AHS to help ensure a safe re-entry into schools on Monday.”

Speaking with Postmedia on Friday, CCSD superintendent Bryan Szumlas also denied that contact tracing was put on pause, saying administrators were following through with case notifications through the district's 10-day break.

“I'm so proud of our administrators and all the hard work they're doing over spring break to contact all individuals who were close contacts,” Szumlas said.

“That's been going on and it continues to go on. We've seen an increased rise in the variant cases and that work is tough work, and we're proud of people for doing it over the holiday time.”

According to AHS, provincial contact tracers conduct investigations, while schools assist in the process by providing lists of close contacts and dates of exposure to those contact tracers.

AHS “received some close contact lists” from CCSD during the spring break period and has commenced notifications, they said.

“We will notify all close contacts (or their parents/guardians if the contact is a minor) using a letter, sent via email if the school has provided email addresses to AHS,” the provincial health authority said.

“We will aim to complete these notifications as quickly as possible and will continue to do so as we receive lists in the coming days.”

The situation has similarities to concerns raised by parents of Calgary Board of Education students when that board went on spring break in late March.

In a letter sent to CBE parents before their spring break, the board said parents did not need to contact schools if their child tested positive for COVID -19 over the break, saying AHS would instead complete contact tracing.

Confusion over contact tracing during vacation periods demonstrates a shortcoming in Alberta's case-tracking system, argued Medeana Moussa, spokeswoman with the Support Our Students advocacy group.

“(The province) downloaded this really critical work of contact tracing to school systems and they actually haven't provided them with the necessary support to ensure that it's 100 per cent effective,” Moussa said.

On Saturday, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said the province created a contact tracing team dedicated to schools in January.

He said the province currently has capacity to complete up to 2,000 contact tracing investigations each day.

“Having said that, to be clear, I am concerned we could very well begin cresting above 2,000 daily cases in the foreseeable future,” Kenney said.

“So our contact tracing system may be challenged again, but in that context we would continue to prioritize school investigations.”

Last October, ahead of Alberta's deadly second wave of COVID-19, parents began reporting delays in case notifications from schools. Weeks later, the province's contact tracing system was overwhelmed completely.

Moussa said she worried contact tracing could once again buckle under the weight of Alberta's third wave. On Sunday, the province logged another 1,183 new cases.

“This is our third wave. Every wave we should be learning something new and making better decisions,” she said.