Alberta to resume contact tracing in schools, provide rapid testing kits to families
CBC
The Alberta government is bringing back contact tracing in schools and plans to provide rapid testing kits to help parents in outbreak areas test their children twice a week at home.
Education Minister Adriana LaGrange announced Tuesday that schools will start notifying close contacts of students who were infectious at school.
The shift comes with the province in the midst of a deadly fourth wave of COVID-19 that has overwhelmed the province's hospitals and ICUs and forced the government to accept medical help from the Canadian Armed Forces, the Red Cross and other provinces.
Alberta Health Services had stopped notifying schools of positive test results so districts were relying on parents to tell them if their children fall ill.
Some school boards and other advocacy groups have been calling for contact tracing and other measures since the beginning of the school year. Now, some critics say Tuesday's announcement comes too late.
At a news conference Tuesday, LaGrange defended her government's COVID-19 approach for schools.
"We started the year with very strong protocols," she said, listing the masking and cohorting measures already in place.
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