Image Credit: CFJC Today / Adam Donnelly

By Jill Sperling

School Exposures

Increase in Kamloops school exposures a reflection of COVID-19 spread outside of schools

Jan 18, 2021 | 4:37 PM

KAMLOOPS — More COVID-19 exposures have been recorded at schools in Kamloops. Over the weekend, the Kamloops-Thompson School District was informed of potential exposure incidents at three schools.

“There may be another school or more schools,” said SD73 Superintendent of Schools Terry Sullivan. “We’re still seeing those types of increases since Christmas. I guess they’re the result of the Christmas vacation, I guess that we’re seeing.”

Juniper Ridge Elementary, South Kamloops Secondary and Valleyview Secondary are the most recent schools to be added to Interior Health’s exposure list. Valleyview Secondary and Juniper Ridge Elementary have the potential exposure date of Jan. 11, while SKSS has potential exposure dates of Jan. 7, 8, 12 and 13.

“When (cases are) brought into the school, what we want to do is we want to isolate them as quickly as possible so we can reduce the transmission within the school itself,” Sullivan said. “We’ve had just great support from Interior Health in helping us to do that and I want people to know that as these cases increase then the contact tracing that they have to do is going to increase very significantly as well.”

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According to Interior Health, cases of COVID-19 within the school are a reflection of what is happening in the community.

“We have a parent bring the infection home from somewhere and then the family gets infected,” said Medical Health Officer Dr. Carol Fenton. “They may be in a bubble with one other family and then those children when they test positive are flagged as having attended the school. But, most often the exposure and the transmission is happening outside of school.”

Sullivan is concerned that spring break could bring about yet another increase in cases.

“I expect we’re probably going to see another spike,” he said. “Vaccines will not have permeated most of the community by that point, so we’re probably going to get more then.”

Sullivan is urging the community to follow provincial guidelines in order to prevent further transmission.