There’s a confirmed probable case of COVID-19 at St. Joseph’s Catholic Elementary School in Stratford. Huron Public Health is confirming the first school-related exposure but says the risk is low to the school community and the public at large. The discovery came when HPPH was investigating a confirmed case of the virus and determined a member of the school community was a probable case and had been at the school when they may have been infectious.
A probable case is defined as a person that a doctor strongly suspects COVID-19 and other factors are involved such as:
- Patient has travel history and/or
- Patient has contact with a known case and/or
- Patient has symptoms but testing has not been carried out.
Huron Perth Medical Officer of Health Dr. Miriam Klassen says out of an abundance of caution Public Health is taking the situation seriously, “to prevent the possible spread of the virus in a school.”
A notice has been sent to parents and to the rest of the school community. Close contacts of the probable case have been notified and have been advised to stay home from school and quarantine.
Dr. Klassen says because this is the first case of COVID-19 in a school they are informing the public of the process but won’t be doing so if there is another case, “Going forward, HPPH will not routinely comment on individual probable or confirmed cases in a school setting, unless there is an outbreak or there are other public health considerations for the community at large.”
HPPH says this is not an outbreak situation, St. Joseph’s Catholic Elementary remains open and the risk remains low.
Public Health will not be releasing any further details about the probable case or how many close contacts are involved because of privacy concerns.
