B.C. barely looking at school transmission: expertB.C. doesn’t do enough testing, particularly in schools, and that the long-delayed requirement for masks for Grades 4 to 12 meant the province could’ve done a lot more to curb infections in school settings.
The infection control epidemiologist pointed out that Fraser Health’s document doesn’t make it clear whether transmission in a school bus, for example, is considered a school or community setting. He described that as problematic because the enclosed spaces have students at close quarters and at high risk of transmission.
“I've said many times, we don't have the type of information that I think everybody would like to have which is exactly who transmitted to who and every school and every day care,” said Henry on Monday. “We do have some higher level information and we've had some deep dives that have been done in both Vancouver Coastal and Fraser Health in particular that we've presented to people.
Zbar said that there are some rapid tests now sent home in the Surrey School District for families that may have trouble accessing testing, and points out anyone ordered to isolate gets a handout instructing them to go for testing seven days after the possible school exposure, whether they have symptoms or not., the federal government has sent 2,796,506 rapid tests to British Columbia, which has only distributed 401,243 from provincial warehouses; only 30,892 are reported used.