The number of possible COVID-19 exposures in Richmond schools has been “declining steadily” since November, according to Richmond School District superintendent Scott Robinson.
Robinson told the Richmond COVID-19 Community Task Force on Tuesday (Feb. 2) that exposures in the district’s schools peaked in mid-November 2020 “at about 15 cases in one week,” but since then the number of exposures has dropped.
“For the month of January, we saw either one or two possible exposures per week throughout the month,” Robinson said.
“(That) is definitely encouraging and I think it reflects the declining number of exposures in the community overall.”
He added that to date, there haven’t been any cases of transmission in any of the district’s schools.
In January, Vancouver Coastal Health listed three Richmond schools on its school exposures webpage: Palmer secondary (exposure on Jan. 4 to 5), MacNeill secondary (Jan. 20 to 22) and Whiteside elementary (Jan. 25).
Another exposure was reported at MacNeill on Feb. 1.
According to VCH, an exposure occurs when a case of COVID-19 is present in the school during their infectious period. However, that doesn’t mean there is transmission of the virus in the school.
While there have been fewer exposures recently, parents and staff have said they would like to have more information from public health about how COVID-19 is impacting schools, said Robinson on Tuesday.
“So we are working with (the) Ministry of Education and public health officials to try and arrange for some additional communication that would hopefully help to reduce those fears for some folks at least.”
Teachers have expressed they would like faster communication about exposures in schools, with an early notification sent out once a school has been informed of a positive test result, according to a survey last month by the Richmond Teachers Association.
Teachers also said they want to be part of contact tracing, as they “know the close contacts and movement of students,” according to the survey.
Richmond’s number of COVID-19 cases has also dropped in recent weeks, and the city currently has some of the lowest case numbers in the Lower Mainland.
Between Jan. 29 and Feb. 4, 45 cases were detected, according to the BC Centre for Disease Control, down from 59 the week before.
