There are 13 Burnaby schools listed by Fraser Health as having recent COVID-19 exposures, including two with a variant identified.
The Fraser Health COVID-19 school case tracker also lists the city’s biggest high school as finally seeing exposure dates after not having any during the first two months of 2021. (The Fraser Health site does not always have all school exposures listed as there is often a lagtime between when families are notified and the health authority listing the dates.)
Burnaby North Secondary has exposure dates listed for March 3, 4 and 5.
Other local high schools with recent exposure dates are Burnaby Central, Alpha, Cariboo Hill and Moscrop.
Burnaby elementary schools with recent exposure dates include Clinton, Douglas Road, Brantford, Marlborough, Montecito, Morley and Second Street.
One independent school on the list is Holy Cross Elementary.
Two of these Burnaby schools have seen a COVID-19 variant discovered recently.
Parents at Burnaby Central Secondary got a notice telling them someone with a variant type of COVID-19 had been at the school on Feb. 22.
The letter followed one to École Marlborough Elementary parents reporting someone positive for a COVID-19 variant had been at that school on Feb. 16 and 17.
In a recent news release, Fraser Health said it was working with the Burnaby school district to manage an exposure to a COVID-19 “variant of concern” at Marlborough but provided no information about the Burnaby Central variant exposure.
Fraser Health says variants are “more easily transmissible” but don’t interfere with the effectiveness of vaccines, nor the ability to test for the virus.
Most of the variant cases in B.C. have been the B117 variant first identified in the U.K., while the B1351 variant identified in South Africa accounted for some cases.
Neither the Burnaby Central letter nor the Marlborough notice specified which variant had been detected at those schools.
Burnaby school leaders are urging everyone connected to local schools to “remain vigilant” and contain the spread of COVID-19 during spring break.
In a show of solidarity, a joint letter signed by the Burnaby Teachers’ Association, CUPE local 379, the Burnaby principals’ and vice-principals’ association, the district parent advisory council and the Burnaby school district was sent out to all parents and staff Friday
“There is no doubt that the decisions we make during Spring Break will impact our schools and wider community,” states the letter. “Since the beginning of the pandemic, health officials have emphasized that our personal choices affect not just our own health, but that of others in the community. We sincerely appreciate anything you can continue to do to support the public health orders.”
- With additional reporting by Cornelia Naylor
