WINNIPEG -- Three schools in Manitoba have potentially had exposures to COVID-19 variants of concern, Manitoba health officials announced on Friday.
According to Dr. Jazz Atwal, acting deputy chief provincial public health officer, two schools in Winnipeg, and one school in Winkler have reported potential exposures.
The schools are Ecole Tache and O. V. Jewitt Elementary School in Winnipeg, and Pine Ridge Elementary School in Winkler.
“At O. V. Jewitt Elementary School and Ecole Tache, it’s been determined the cases were close contacts of a case of a variant of concern,” Atwal said. “All close contacts and their household contacts are isolating.”
Atwal said case investigations are continuing at Pine Ridge Elementary School to determine details about the initial cases, and where they may have contacted the variant of concern.
“The affected cohorts at the school and on bus routes, as well as all of their family close contacts, are isolating,” he said, adding if parents and guardians have not been contacted by the school, or a public health official, they have not been identified as a close contact of a case.
Atwal said when a variant of concern exposure is identified at a school, more aggressive contact tracing begins, and said the entire class or cohort exposed to the case will be removed to remote learning for the duration of the quarantine, and may be considered close contacts.
“The entire class or cohort, and their household members, will be required to self-isolate,” he said. “If a close contact is linked to a variant of concern, and the close contact chooses not to be tested, the close contact must self-isolate for 14 days, followed by an additional 10 days, for a total of 24 days. The rest of the close contact’s household must also self-isolate for the entire 24 days.”
