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Here's what would prompt the health unit to close a school due to COVID-19

‘We would need to look at the pattern of cases,’ says Dr. Colin Lee, an infectious disease specialist and associate medical officer of health for the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit
2020-09-21 DrLee JO-001
Dr. Colin Lee is the associate medical officer of health for the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit and an infectious disease specialist. Contributed image

With cases of COVID-19 popping up in local schools less than two weeks into the new school year, new questions and concerns are also popping up.

Dr. Colin Lee, an infectious disease specialist and associate medical officer of health for the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit, sat down with CollingwoodToday to talk about when the public health agency would consider calling for a complete closure of a school, why the health unit is suggesting some classrooms quarantine and get tested but not others, and whether secondary students really should be going off-campus for lunch.

According to the CBC, Fellowes High School in Pembroke became the first school in the province to close because of a COVID outbreak last week. The first elementary school in the province to close due to an outbreak was Monsignor Paul Baxter Catholic School in Ottawa, as of Saturday, after two staff members and two students tested positive for the virus.

“There isn’t a hard number of cases where we would recommend closure,” said Lee. “However, I would be comfortable saying it’s not one or two cases.”

Lee said the type of spread would play a role in determining a recommendation from the health unit.

“We would need to look at the pattern of cases. For example, if we had five cases and all of them were in one or two classrooms, that’s less of an issue than five cases in five different classrooms where we know some of them have interacted between classrooms,” he said.

“That would give us a sense of if transmission was going on within the school," Lee added. "If it were one classroom, we would think we could contain it to that one classroom and limit spread."

Last week, the first case in a Simcoe County school was confirmed at Twin Lakes Secondary School in Orillia after a teacher tested positive. In that instance, the health unit did not suggest the students quarantine for 14 days, or get a COVID test.

On Monday, a case was confirmed at Bear Creek Secondary School in south-end Barrie. In that case, anyone who came in close contact with the individual was recommended a 14-day quarantine and a COVID test.

Lee says the difference in health unit recommendations between the two cases was due to a variety of factors.

“There’s a lot that goes into it. In the Twin Lakes case, where we did not (recommend) quarantine, the teacher... was not symptomatic. That decreases the infectiousness. She wore a medical-grade surgical mask as all teachers do, as well as a face shield," he said. "She was always two metres away from students.

"If you add all that up, the droplets that would have come out of her mouth would have not been that infectious (although infectious still), and would never reach students,” sLee added. “The risk of those students getting COVID from that teacher was really as close to zero as possible.”

In elementary grades especially, Lee says extra recommendations are necessary because younger students tend to be in closer contact with each other and their teachers.

“In other cases – I would say, in most cases – especially in other grades, while students are wearing masks they aren’t medical grade, and they’re not wearing eye protection,” he said.

On Sunday, the Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board sent a letter to parents announcing that secondary students would no longer be permitted to leave school property for lunch as of Tuesday, Sept. 22.

Meanwhile, public board officials confirmed on Monday they would not be enforcing such a rule at their schools, instead opting to increase education efforts among students to make sure they were following public health guidelines whenever they leave the property.

Although the health unit did not make a specific recommendation regarding this protocol, Lee says school boards have to do what works best for them.

“From what I understand, there were some complaints about students going out for lunch,” he said. “It wasn’t at our recommendation or direction, but boards are empowered to do what is necessary and adjust as they see fit.”

One of the challenges the health unit and school boards face is getting students to take advice seriously after school, Lee says.

“Students who go out for lunch, they also go out after school. The biggest recommendation for students and everyone is, if you do go out to lunch or outside, keep your physical distance and wear a mask,” he said.

“We need to find the right balance between the measures we’re taking and the amount of transmission there is," Lee added. "I understand why they’re going ahead with that, but we’d have to take a look at if it’s a practise we’d recommend."

Simcoe County school cases (as of Sept. 21)

  • Sept. 15 – Twin Lakes Secondary School, Orillia (teacher)
  • Sept. 18 – St. John Vianney Catholic School, Barrie (individual)
  • Sept. 20 – Father F.X. O’Reilly Catholic School, Tottenham (individual)
  • Sept. 21 – Bear Creek Secondary School, Barrie (individual)

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Jessica Owen

About the Author: Jessica Owen

Jessica Owen is an experienced journalist working for Village Media since 2018, primarily covering Collingwood and education.
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