Safe September chides Manitoba for lack of transparency about COVID-19 cases in schools

The recent reappearance ofCOVID-19 cases in schools is just the tip of the iceberg, saysan advocacy group for the safety of teachers and students in Manitoba.

Less than a week into the return to school in the province, a Grade 1 classin Steinbach has moved into remote learning and, according to the province's online dashboard for school-age cases, there have been 10 cases in nine different schools as of Sept. 13.

Detailed information about whichschools the cases were inand on what dates can be found on a map on the dashboard.

"Frankly, I'm not surprised. We knew this would happen," said Lauren Hope,a math and science teacher at a Winnipeg high school and a member ofSafe September Manitoba.

"What I am surprised about is the lack of response and transparency from the Manitoba government. I mean,we've been doing this for 18 months now."

Safe Septemberformed last yearto lobby the government for more resources for teachers and parents to ensure that the return to in-class learning didn'tlead to a surge in COVID-19 cases.

At a news conference on Monday, Chief Provincial Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin said he did not have a complete count of school cases yet.

He said theprovince wastracking all cases in schools and would publish that information regularly on its dashboard atsome point soon. The numbers showed up around 12:30 p.m. Tuesday.

"As a teacher, I find it negligent, because I had to be prepared before the first day of school was happening, so why is this coming so late?"Hope said.

There are several other questions without answers as well, Hope said.

"We still have no idea about what the test-trace-isolate will mean with the delta variant," she said. Test-trace-isolate is an approach in which people who test positive are asked to isolate and their contacts are traced and then asked to quarantine.

"We do not know how they will be identifying close contacts," she said. "We know that we're dealing with a delta variant that's highly transmissible."

Hope is urging the province to implement rapid testing at schools several times a week to find potential cases before theyspread.

"It is not good enough to find the cases and then contact trace," she said. "If we really say that our highest priority is keeping kids in school, then we would put the resources into doing that.

"As we watch what's happening to the west of us right now, we need to be extra vigilant, and having schools in session means that we need to do everything we can to protect those students, the teachers and the staff and their families."

Alberta reported 4,740 new cases of COVID-19 and 18 new deaths as the province released three days of data on Monday.Alberta Health lists 198 people being treated in intensive care beds, the highest number the province has experienced.

Meanwhile, health officials in British Columbia on Monday announced 1,984 new cases and nine deaths since Friday.

And Saskatchewan brokeits own pandemicrecord on Monday with449 new cases that day the highest new case count in the province, breaking the previous record of 441 set onNov. 20, 2020.

Mixed reactions from parents

Some parents are still concerned about having their children in school during the pandemic.

Emebet Getachewis the mother of two school-agechildren in Winnipeg one in kindergarten and onein Grade 5. She says she's happy they're back in school, because they didn't like learning at home.

She said learning at home, "they just feel bored all the time, making noise. They don't feel good at all at home."

Even so, she says it's scaryto send them back, considering neither child is eligible for aCOVID-19 vaccine.

"I'm still worried," Getachew said.

Frehwot Kibrat, whohas two sons one in kindergarten and onein Grade10 says she isn't very worried about COVID-19 at school.

"The teachers are very careful, they're very protective.Everybody is masked and my [older] son is taking the two vaccinations," she said.

"Theteacher is going to protect all the kids. Everybody's wearing a mask. You're feeling safe."

Safe September group wants rapid testing in every school

3 years ago

Duration 1:46

The recent reappearance of COVID-19 cases in schools is just the tip of the iceberg, says an advocacy group for the safety of teachers and students in Manitoba.