Education Minister Dustin Duncan. (Lisa Schick/980 CJME file photo)

By CKOM News

Saskatchewan outlines steps to keep schools open

Jan 5, 2022 | 11:43 AM

The Saskatchewan government doesn’t have any immediate plans to move schools to online learning.

On Wednesday, the government outlined the steps it plans to take to keep schools operating in the midst of a fifth wave of COVID-19.

“We know that in-class learning is critically important to students’ overall mental and physical health and development,” Education Minister Dustin Duncan said in a media release. “That is why the Government of Saskatchewan is supporting all students and staff in finding ways to reduce risk while we learn to live with COVID in our everyday lives.

“School staff have done a phenomenal job in ensuring our schools remain as safe as possible while continuing to ensure that parents have access to timely information about COVID in our communities.”

In the release, the government said it was asking schools to update their process for notifying families and close contacts of COVID cases in a timely manner.

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Positive test results for staff or students have to be reported to the school office, which then will notify parents and guardians or those on buses about the cases.

“Fully vaccinated students and staff who are close contacts will follow the current process of self-monitoring,” the release said. “They are able to attend school and other activities as long as they remain asymptomatic. Fully vaccinated students and staff who test positive are required to self-isolate for five days.”

Close contacts in settings like schools, daycares or recreation activities who aren’t fully vaccinated can attend school or child-care facilities as long as they’re asymptomatic, but they can’t take part in extracurricular activities for the 10 days of their self-monitoring period.

If the transmission was in a household setting, unvaccinated students must isolate for 10 days and can’t attend school or child care.

Unvaccinated staff members who are a close contact have to self-isolate for 10 days following their last exposure to the positive case.

“In the case of an outbreak in a school, which is defined as three or more cases in a class or cohort of students, public health will continue to investigate and may advise further mitigation measures for either the class or the entire school,” the government said.

The province said an increase in cases in the community will mean an increase in cases in schools, so it once again urged people to get vaccinated, to get their booster shots when they’re eligible, to wear masks, to use rapid tests and to stay home when they’re sick.

The government noted more than 1.6 million rapid antigen tests have been given to families through the province’s elementary schools, and rapid tests also will be available in high schools.