Northern Health says a second exposure has been identified at Quesnel Junior School, this one between May 5th and 7th.
The first was between the 4th and 5th and was announced yesterday.
An exposure has also been identified at Barlow Creek Elementary and at Correlieu Secondary School, both between May 4th and 7th.
As always, close contacts will be notified directly by public health and asked to isolate for 14 days.
In total, there have now been eleven exposures now in the Quesnel School District since the pandemic began.
With the number of potential exposures going up, we asked Northern Health’s Eryn Collins, who is in charge of communications, if school closures would be considered at some point.
“As our website’s school notification section explains, each notification is the result of a potential exposure to a confirmed case of COVID-19 within a school setting (in other words, someone with a lab-confirmed case who may have been in the school setting, during their communicable period). And, a notification doesn’t necessarily mean exposure(s) occurred.”
  “If there were a concern for ongoing transmission of COVID-19 within a school setting, further information would be shared and if needed, action taken by Public Health – up to and including an outbreak declaration. That would be at a Medical Health Officer’s discretion and based on the circumstances – but school closure is rarely a necessary measure; with preventive measures in place (i.e. cohorting, screening, etc.), risk of transmission in school is reduced.”