Dr. Henry sticking to school plans despite case of COVID-19 in Lower Mainland school

While there were only eight new cases of COVID-19 in B.C. in the last 24 hours, one of those included an adult working at an independent school in the Lower Mainland.

Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said, during her COVID-19 update today, June 18, that the man was involved in several different roles in the school, including teaching.

In-class teaching has been stopped at that school.

“This is not unexpected,” Dr. Henry said. “When we went into opening up the in-classroom schools, at the beginning of June, we knew that Public Health was paying attention to this and it was very possible that somebody would bring the virus to the school setting with them."

She said, while it’s less likely that children will infect each other or adults, it was quite possible for adults to infect each other.

“It doesn’t change our assessment of the risk,” Dr. Henry said. “The risk is still very low. It was recognized quickly. It was managed. The very small number of close contacts are now in isolation and we’ll be doing the very same thing over the summer and when the school system starts again next fall.”

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