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New Westminster Secondary School sees multiple COVID-19 exposures

After an uneventful January, February has seen four exposure notices in a row at the district's largest school – but the district numbers for 2021 remain much lower than the fall
Julie MacLellan
Julie MacLellan
EarlyNotificationLetterNWSS
New Westminster Secondary School families have seen more of these this week than in the month of January, with multiple COVID-19 exposure notices at NWSS in February.contributed

New Westminster Secondary School has been hit with multiple back-to-back COVID-19 exposures in the past week.

Yesterday (Feb. 11), families received notification of an exposure at the school on Feb. 8, following notification the previous day of an exposure on Feb. 3, and notification the day before that of an exposure on Feb. 4 and 5.

The three notifications follow on the heels of an exposure notice from the previous week (Feb. 3), when families were informed of exposures that had taken place on Jan. 28 and Feb. 1.

The four exposures follow an uneventful January – a month in which NWSS families received no exposure notices.

The month had been a turnaround from December, when two classes at the high school went into the winter break in self-isolation and the school had recorded multiple exposures. (NWSS, with more than 1,700 students, is the district's largest school and has recorded the largest number of exposures.)

The February notifications for NWSS remain listed on the Fraser Health school exposures website as “exposures,” meaning that in each case a person who has since tested positive for COVID-19 (student or staff) was in the school during their infectious period.

In all cases, the public health team takes over to trace contacts of the person and to investigate the exposure at the school so they can follow up with any staff or students who may need to self-isolate or self-monitor for symptoms of COVID-19.

Should it be found that two or more individuals were involved in a related case and that there may have been school-based transmission, Fraser Health would then define it as a “cluster” – or, in worst-case scenario, an outbreak involving multiple people and more widespread transmission.

So far in the 2020/21 school year, no New Westminster schools have seen outbreaks, and the overall COVID-19 situation in 2021 has remained relatively quiet.

COVID-19 EXPOSURES IN NEW WEST SCHOOLS IN 2021:

  • Glenbrook Middle School: exposures Jan. 4, Feb. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
  • Home Learners Program: Jan. 5
  • Queensborough Middle School: Jan. 11
  • Herbert Spencer Elementary: Jan. 25
  • Fraser River Middle School: Jan. 27, 28 and 29
  • New Westminster Secondary School: Jan. 28, Feb. 1, 3, 4, 5, 8
     

Follow Julie MacLellan on Twitter @juliemaclellan.
Email Julie, jmaclellan@newwestrecord.ca.