Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin has announced revised close contact identification and management protocols in schools to address the impact of remote learning and self isolation on students.  He explains they’re providing that bit more transparent definition of outbreaks so when they say outbreaks people will know exactly what they’re meaning but also more importantly is how they’re assessing contacts and who needs to isolate so in the past they weren’t considering non-medical masks to be a consideration in the risk of transmission and they are now.  Of course he notes in the past we didn’t have vaccines so this is relatively new to do that so this announcement is showing how public health will still be tracking cases, reporting cases in schools but more importantly how they are attempting to keep as many kids in school as safe as possible.

He adds an outbreak will include at least three school associated cases identified within 14 days of each other in students, teachers or staff within a specified cohort. The cases will have to be assessed as potentially acquired in school and linked to known cases in the school setting or school sanctioned extracurricular activity.