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The number of Burnaby schools – both private and public – with COVID-19 exposures has exploded in recent days.
One school, Gilpin elementary, has seven different exposure dates listed by Fraser Health on its tracker website, from April 6-9 and 12-14.
Nearly every Burnaby public high school has exposure dates listed, including Central, North, South, Alpha and Cariboo Hill. Moscrop and Byrne Creek were taken off the list earlier in the week.
Other elementary schools include Armstrong, Clinton, Gilmore, Glenwood, Lakeview, Lundhurst, Montecito, Morley, Parkcrest, Stoney Creek and Taylor Park.
As for independent schools, Holy Cross Elementary and St. Thomas More are on the liste.
With hundreds of COVID-19 exposures in British Columbia schools over the past several month, some have called on B.C. to follow Ontario's lead and close in-class instruction. But on Thursday, Dr. Bonnie Henry presented new data to show why that's not being considered at this time.
During her “epidemiological modelling” presentation Thursday, Dr. Henry pointed to two studies in the Fraser and Vancouver Coastal health regions that showed that the limited transmission seen in schools does not appear to be driving transmission in the community.
Between Jan. 1 and March 7, 2,049 COVID-19 cases were identified among school staff and students in the Fraser Health region. Of these, 83 per cent of cases were students.
But of these cases, public health determined only 267 of the cases were “likely” acquired in a school itself, and when transmission did occur in schools, it would typically lead to just one other case. Additionally, there was no transmission identified at about 85 per cent of Fraser Health schools during this period.
A similar study in the Vancouver Coastal Health region between Sept. 10 and Dec. 18 of last year found similar results, but no similar data was presented for the Interior.
“Student and staff cases follow the trends in the community, but when they're in the structured school environment, the rates of transmission are much, much less,” Dr. Henry said.
“Most of the cases in the school setting were acquired outside of the school and there was little transmission within the school itself.”
She also noted they have not seen increased transmission in schools in recent weeks due to the increase in "variants of concerns" circulating in the community.
“That is something we are watching,” Dr. Henry said. “It speaks to the importance of safety measures and structured environments being less risky than some of the unstructured social connections that we have.”
- With additional reporting by Nicholas Johansen/Castanet
