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Saanich middle school added to growing list of COVID-19 exposures

People at Arbutus Global Middle School may have been exposed to the virus April 1
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A COVID-19 exposure has been reported at Arbutus Global Middle School. People may have come in contact with the positive case on April 1. (Google Streetview)

Students and staff at Arbutus Global Middle School in Saanich may have been exposed to a case of COVID-19 last week.

The Greater Victoria School District said the potential date of exposure is April 1 and that Island Health is completing contact tracing to notify those at risk.

This is the sixth school exposure or COVID-19 cluster reported in Greater Victoria in the last week. An exposure is when a confirmed case of COVID-19 was present at the school. A cluster is when there have been two or more confirmed cases at the school within a 14-day period, with evidence that the transmission occurred there.

At Oak Bay High School, people may have been exposed to the virus on March 30. At Dunsmuir and Cedar Hill middle schools, exposures have been upgraded to clusters with potential dates of exposure both listed as March 29, 30, 31 and April 1.

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Cases have also been reported at Oaklands Elementary School, with potential exposures on March 29, 30, and 31, and at Belmont Secondary School, with potential exposures on March 31 and April 1.

On March 28 – the Sunday before students returned from spring break –Island Health issued a statement warning parents they would very likely see a spike in the number of school exposures.

The health authority asked parents to keep their children home from school if they are even only displaying mild symptoms of COVID-19. Those symptoms include fever, chills, cough, shortness of breath, sore throat, runny nose, the loss of sense of smell or appetite, muscle aches, fatigue and headaches, diarrhea, and nausea or vomiting.

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