A Calgary mom who found out about a COVID-19 case in her daughter’s classroom through social circles said more needs to be done by the province to notify parents of positive cases sooner.
Stacy Keith’s children attend Alexander Ferguson School, a Calgary Board of Education elementary in the city’s southwest. She found out Thursday evening from another parent that a child in her daughter’s class, as well as a child in another class, had tested positive for COVID-19.
She confirmed the information with school administrators, who told her they were unable to officially notify parents until they got the green light from Alberta Health Services.
“Basically, these two classrooms have had positive cases, but AHS has not been in contact with the school to confirm this and to tell them to isolate those children and the teacher,” Keith said.
“It’s only been parent word-of-mouth. Not a quarter of the families know. It’s only luck that I did find out.”
School administrators sent a notice to parents Saturday morning that a COVID-19 case had been confirmed, but as of Saturday afternoon, Keith still had not heard from the school or AHS about the case in her daughter’s class.
Keith kept her daughter home and took her for a COVID-19 test Friday. She said it was frustrating she didn’t get an official notice after a positive case had been confirmed within the classroom cohort.
The situation was of particular concern because the family was planning to visit with grandparents Friday before learning of the case, Keith said.
“We’re really not very happy that there isn’t a fairly immediate response when there’s a confirmed case in the school,” she said. “I think it’s pretty risky business, allowing families not to be notified. … I certainly would like AHS to act more quickly when they know a child has been in school but is positive.”
The CBE said in a statement the board takes action on positive cases as soon as it is given direction to do so by AHS.
AHS said public-health teams work with schools to determine close contacts when it is determined that a student or staff member was at school while infectious.
“If a positive case was at school while infectious, AHS aims to make contact with the superintendent and school administration within 48 hours of receiving that positive test result; however, note that the first priority is calling the positive case themselves,” AHS said in a statement.
A recent surge in COVID-19 cases is leading to a greater contact tracing lag time, AHS said. Alberta recorded 432 new cases of the novel coronavirus Friday, setting the province’s single-day case record for a third consecutive day.
“AHS is seeing an increased demand for contact tracing related to increased positive cases and outbreaks across the province as we move through relaunch,” AHS said. “As individuals are increasing the number of places they visit and people they interact with, contact tracing is becoming increasingly complex and requires additional time to complete.”
Keith said she doesn’t fault school officials for the delay, saying AHS needs to find a way to expedite its notification process.
“(The school) did all the right things in trying to move this along so that parents could be made aware and children could get tested if they needed to be,” she said. “I think leadership has reacted to this appropriately, but their hands are tied.”
Twitter: @jasonfherring
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