As we wrap up this first week back from Winter Break, I wanted to follow up on some key changes.<\/p>\n
Fraser Health has made changes to the notification process that we\u2019ve been supporting them with. Outlined in a recent letter they shared with us, what they are seeing is that \u201cthe Omicron variant spreads rapidly and, as such, contact tracing is a less effective measure in the timely management of COVID-19.\u201d As a result of this, Public Health will no longer be contacting everyone who tests positive, and this means they will not issue exposure notices through our schools or on their website. Fraser Health has transitioned to individual self-management (i.e., individuals care for themselves, engaging with health care providers when needed) and will continue to issue public notifications in cases where a declared outbreak has occurred.<\/p>\n
In order to continue to monitor and manage COVID-19, across the province health authorities will now be using absentee rates to track what\u2019s happening in individual districts, schools and classrooms. Our school-based staff are carefully monitoring attendance every day, as they look for and are reporting instances of unusually high absences, for this time of year.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what you can do to help us accurately report our attendance anomalies to Fraser Health: <\/strong><\/p>\n We are all awaiting more details about how the Province of BC will be rolling out the anticipated wider access to Rapid Testing kits in the community. But for those who are already using the kits, we wanted to share this resource, the BC Centre for Disease Control\u2019s instructions for people who have tested positive for COVID-19 (including information on how self-isolate, how to report your positive test results, and how to determine and notify close contacts): http:\/\/www.bccdc.ca\/health-info\/diseases-conditions\/covid-19\/if-you-have-covid-19<\/a><\/p>\n If you have any further questions about how Fraser Health is managing COVID-19, you can find out more here: https:\/\/www.fraserhealth.ca\/health-topics-a-to-z\/coronavirus\/#.YeHFSmjMKUk<\/a>. If you have health related questions about COVID-19 please call 811.<\/p>\n Thank you for all the hard work and understanding as we continue forward, together, <\/p>\n\n
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\nKarim Hachlaf
\nSuperintendent of Schools \/ CEO<\/p>\n