Queensborough Middle School has seen another COVID-19 exposure – bringing the total notifications in the school district in the past month to 19.
The latest Queensborough exposure happened on Feb. 25 and 26, according to a letter to families dated March 5. The latest case was reported on the Fraser Health school exposures website on March 7.
It comes directly on the heels of a previous exposure reported at the school on Feb. 23, 24 and 25. The entire school also received a notification to self-monitor for symptoms after that exposure.
That makes Queensborough the fourth school in the New Westminster school district to see multiple notifications in the past month.
Richard McBride Elementary has received three notification letters, while Glenbrook Middle School has seen five and New Westminster Secondary School has seen seven, according to a report that will be presented at the March 9 school board meeting.
F.W. Howay Elementary School has also received one, as has Qayqayt Elementary (where one class was also sent into isolation).
That makes a substantially higher number of exposures in local schools than in the previous month: in the period from Jan. 1 to Feb. 8, the school district issued eight notifications about COVID-19 exposures in schools.
January had marked a dramatic turn-around for the district from December, when the district sent out 29 exposure notifications.
The renewed upswing in numbers comes against the backdrop of rising concern over case numbers in Fraser Health (the region that covers the territory from Burnaby to Boston Bar, including New Westminster). In recent weeks, increasing numbers of variants of concern have also been reported in the region’s schools – the majority in Surrey. So far one exposure involving a COVID-19 variant has been reported in New Westminster, at NWSS.
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