The Grey Bruce Health Unit is hopeful a new COVID-19 screening tool and updates to provincial guidance concerning symptom-free students will help address a backlog of test requests at assessment centres.
Higher than normal volumes were reported at all three of Grey Bruce’s Covid assessment centres in Owen Sound, Kincardine and Hanover this past week.
Several parents told Bayshore Broadcasting News their kids were sent home from schools in Grey Bruce and required to produce a negative test result or not return to the classroom for 14 days, after displaying minor symptoms such as sneezing or a runny nose.
One source indicated more than 50 kids were sent home from an elementary school in the Bluewater District School Board since classes resumed.
The Grey Bruce Health Unit issued a statement Friday saying it has heard from a variety of stakeholders expressing substantial concerns about the stringent application of the current screening questionnaire that may send children for testing when it’s not required.
The Health Unit acknowledges this may be needlessly excluding children from school while impacting parents’ ability to go to work because of isolation protocols.
The statement from Public Health says: “For example, one sneeze should not warrant school exclusion, isolation, nor testing.”
Grey Bruce Medical Officer of Health Dr. Ian Arra says the backlog of test requests related to school screening and return to school protocols has been identified and they are working with schools, local healthcare providers and hospital COVID-19 assessment centres to address the issue.
“At the same time we recognize the priority of keeping our children, school staff, and the community safe,” Arra says in a statement.
The Health Unit says a new screening tool for students, parents and teachers has been made available to determine if a child should be staying home or attending school.
“The new provincial screening tool is a step forward from the screening questionnaire used to date by the schools. It is in part in response to the backlog of requests for tests at Assessment Centres,” a statement from the Grey Bruce Health Unit explains. “We believe this is an improvement over the previous questionnaire.”
According to the health unit, the current provincial guidance document requires a symptomatic student and their household members (without symptoms) to self-isolate for 14 days or until they receive a negative Covid test result.
There is new provincial guidance under development that the health unit says proposes a shift to “self monitoring” for household members without symptoms, requiring only the student with symptoms to self-isolate 14 days or until they receive a negative test and are symptom-free for 24 hours.
“All asymptomatic members of the same household are to self-monitor for 14 days and take appropriate precautions should symptoms appear. Asymptomatic students in the same household may return to school and do not require a COVID-19 test,” the Health Unit explains. “Any asymptomatic individual (even if a contact of a symptomatic individual) does not need to be tested, unless directed to do so by Public Health.”
The Grey Bruce Health Unit says the favourable local epidemiology allows it to safely recommend early adoption of this guidance, as of Sept. 18.
The Health Unit also notes for cases of a student of school staff member with symptoms they have had for months or years that may cause them to fail Covid screening — such as chronic medical conditions like allergies, asthma or migraines — a family doctor with access to a patient’s medical history can help in explaining pre-existing conditions to schools and provide documentation when required.
“Healthcare providers are not expected to certify that an individual does not have Covid, rather they may certify that their patient’s symptoms are consistent with another health condition,” the Grey Bruce Health Unit statement explains.
If a student or staff member doesn’t receive this clearance from a healthcare provider, the Health Unit says they can only return to school if they are symptom-free 24 hours, have a negative Covid test result and can pass the provincial screening tool. If these conditions aren’t met, 14 days of self-isolation are required from the onset of symptoms, and a 24-hour period of being symptom-free are necessary to return to the classroom, according to the Grey Bruce Health Unit.
Meantime, the Owen Sound Assessment Centre is no longer accepting walk-ins as Grey Bruce Health Services launches a new online system to book an appointment.
Appointments at the assessment centre can now be booked online or by calling 519-378-1466 between the hours of 12 p.m. and 4 p.m., Monday to Friday.
The Owen Sound Assessment Centre is open from 12 p.m. to 8 p.m., Monday to Friday.
