Parents should be prepared to isolate their children for 14 days.
Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Robert Strang detailed the province’s potential COVID-19 exposure plan for schools at a press conference Wednesday.
Dr. Strang says all close contacts, which can include classmates and teachers, students travelling on the same school bus, or in the same before or after school programs, will be tested.
He says those close contacts must isolate for 14 days, even if their test comes back negative, and students isolating will be given an at-home learning program so they may continue their studies.
Dr. Strang says all families of students at a school with a potential exposure will be notified.
He says it’s clear some students will have to isolate.
“I fully expect we will get cases of COVID-19 in schools,” he says. “It doesn’t mean that the plan has failed, it doesn’t mean that there’s a crisis, it simply means that what we expected to happen has happened, and then we will respond appropriately.”
Dr. Strang says they will close schools, but only if there’s a risk to all staff and students at a particular school.