Routine COVID-19 symptom checks in schools omit runny noses
B.C. schools have recently adopted a new daily health checklist that has students and staff monitoring for “key symptoms” of COVID-19, but those don't include basic signs such as runny noses and sore throats.
The health checks in use in school districts around the province originate from an example the B.C. Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) set out in a Sept. 11 guidance for teachers and administrators. In that document, the BCCDC recommends anyone experiencing fever, chills, cough, shortness of breath, loss of sense of smell or taste, nausea, vomiting or diarrhea should stay at home rather than come to school.
Absent from the list of symptoms are signs such as runny or stuffy nose, sore throat, headache, fatigue, loss of appetite and muscle aches, as well as other less common symptoms such as pink eye, dizziness, abdominal pain or skin rashes or discoloration.
These are among the usual set of symptoms that can earn B.C. residents a green light to get tested for COVID-19, according to the BCCDC.
Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said Monday the change allows parents and older students to make “a judgment call around some of the minor symptoms that we know are not by themselves usually associated with COVID.”
Stephen May, a Ministry of Health spokesman, said some of the symptoms were removed because they're very common in children and could unnecessarily lead to students being excluded from classes.
“If anyone does have those symptoms that were removed, in combination with the ones that are still on the list, they should get tested. But those particular symptoms, on their own in children, are not suggestive of COVID-19,” he said.
The more limited list was built after a review of global data on symptoms, May said.
Taking the Vancouver school board's health check as an example, the district states that all parents, guardians and caregivers must conduct an assessment of their kids each day before school. Those experiencing one key symptom are asked to stay at home for 24 hours from when it first appeared. If the symptom improves, the student can return to school, according to the document.
Those experiencing two or more key symptoms — or who experience a worsening single symptom — are told to seek a health assessment.
Some students could be referred for testing. For children and youth in kindergarten to Grade 12, those tests now involve swishing and gargling sterile salt water and spitting into a tube, according to the BCCDC. But younger children and those who can't perform the mouth-rinse instructions will instead need to have their noses swabbed.