ST. PAUL - As of Thursday, five St. Paul-area schools within the St. Paul Education region were on alert or outbreak status.
Located within the Town of St. Paul, St. Paul Elementary School was listed as being on alert according to the online provincial reporting system, but Superintendent Glen Brodziak clarified that the school was deemed an outbreak as of Oct. 19.
Also within St. Paul, Racette Junior High School and Glen Avon School are both listed as being on alert. Elsewhere in the St. Paul Education region, Mallaig School was also on alert.
F.G. Miller in Elk Point showed five to nine active a cases associated with the junior/senior high school, according to the provincial reporting website, but Brodziak also clarified that the Elk Point school was on outbreak status as of Oct. 17, which means there have more than 10 active cases associated with the school.
Brodziak said the outbreak information the school division receives comes directly from Alberta Health Services (AHS), and he was unclear about the discrepancy between the information the school division received and what is being reported on the provincial website.
The public COVID-19 school status website states it is updated every weekday, other than holidays.
"We have had 13 cases since Monday either self-reported or reported by AHS to us. In all these cases a general notification letter goes up on the individual school website," said Brodziak, on Thursday.
As of Oct. 12, parents are once again being informed if their child may have been exposed to a COVID-19 case who was infectious while at school.
And while the process is somewhat similar to last school year, now that contact tracing has returned to schools there is one notable difference - when staff or students are notified that they've been a close contact with a positive case, they are not required to isolate unless they show symptoms.
Brodziak says he personally has not heard much feedback since contact tracing has resumed in schools.
New definitions
New definitions released by the province state that "An outbreak is reported when 10 or more cases were present while infectious in the school setting within a 14-day period." An outbreak investigation is considered over when there have been no new confirmed cases in the school for 14 days.
A school is put on alert status when the school has two or more cases in the last 14 days, who were present at school while infectious.
"When two or more confirmed cases are identified within the school, public health officials initiate an investigation to monitor risk level and work with the school," according to the Government of Alberta.
A school is removed from the alert list when there are fewer than two confirmed cases in the last 14 days.
