At least 41 positive tests after reopenings
Since elementary schools opened outside the Montreal area on May 11, at least 19 students and 22 staff members have tested positive for COVID -19, according to data provided by the ministry of education.
The infections are scattered across the province, and public health officials say they have been able to manage the outbreaks.
The regions with the most reported cases tied to schools are the Laurentians (10), Montérégie (10) and Mauricie (seven).
But the ministry’s figures are incomplete. Only 60 school boards out of 72 provided the ministry with data, a spokesperson said. The figures are based on reported data from school boards as of May 25. Since then there have been more cases, including two reported on Thursday at a Trois-rivières school, which is in the Mauricie region.
Premier François Legault said this week that the return to school had been a success despite the number of cases. Horacio Arruda, the director of public health, said infections had been rare in schools.
“It’s clear it went well,” Arruda said of schools reopening. “This is a young population; the risk of disease is much lower than the inconvenience of leaving them at home.”
No children have died because of COVID -19 in Quebec. Scientists do not know why the virus does not affect children as severely as adults. A mysterious inflammatory ailment, akin to Kawasaki syndrome, appears to affect some children who have tested positive for COVID -19, or who have antibodies that show they have had the virus. It has been reported in Montreal, but the ailment is considered rare.
A virus outbreak has resulted in the temporary closure of at least one Quebec elementary school.
École St-paul, in Trois-rivières, was closed on Monday and Tuesday because students and staff awaited COVID-19 test results after a staff member initially tested positive for the virus. Testing confirmed that seven people contracted it, a school spokesperson said Friday.
Staff cleaned and disinfected the building and it reopened on Wednesday, but fewer students showed up for class, local newspaper Le Nouvelliste reported. It was not known if it was fear of the virus that convinced parents to keep their children at home.
Closing a school and testing all staff and students to prevent an outbreak is a rare step, said a spokesperson for the Mauricie-et-du-centre-du-québec health authority.
Most of the time schools have remained open even if a student or staff member has tested positive. Health officials perform the same contact tracing they normally would.
If a teacher or student has stayed two-metres away from others and reported their symptoms as soon as they felt them, the risk of them spreading the virus is judged to be minimal.
If a student begins to feel symptoms at school, officials recommend staff immediately isolate the child in a separate room with supervision and provide them with a mask while contacting public health. Many schools are equipped with an emergency kit filled with personal protective equipment to be used if someone comes down with a fever or a cough.
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter