Friday, March 29, 2024

Nanaimo school COVID-19 exposure upgraded to ‘cluster’ after more people infected

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There are now two schools on Vancouver Island that have ongoing ‘cluster’ outbreaks of COVID-19, both in Nanaimo.

In a tweet on Friday morning, School District 68 (Nanaimo-Ladysmith) alerted the public that a previous COVID-19 ‘exposure’ at John Barsby Secondary school has now been upgraded to a ‘cluster’.

An exposure is defined by Island Health as a single person with lab-confirmed COVID-19 infection who attended school during their infectious period.

A ‘cluster’ means two or more individuals with lab-confirmed COVID-19 infection attended school during their infectious period. These cases may be linked to school-based transmission.

According to the school district, contact tracers working to find links to the original exposure at John Barsby Secondary have found additional patients.

In addition to the original exposure dates on November 5 and 6, the school community has been advised that they may have been exposed to the virus on November 9 and 10 as well.

This information has not yet been posted on the Island Health school exposure page.

This is the second school cluster in Nanaimo, after the first was reported at Dover Bay Secondary school earlier this week.

According to Island Health, the cluster at Dover Bay means members of the school community may have been exposed to the virus on November 2, 5, and 6.

Nanaimo is also the centre of Vancouver Island’s first health care facility outbreak, after five staff members in a transitional care unit at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital tested positive for COVID-19 as of November 11.

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Brishti Basu
Former Senior Staff Writer and Content Manager at Victoria Buzz.

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