Declare your classroom's CO2 levels: A call for accuracy by Covid Ecoles Quebec
Teachers and staff in schools across Quebec are being encouraged to share their classrooms' CO2 readings on website Covid Écoles Québec, which was originally created to track the number of positive COVID-19 cases in schools.
Founder Olivier Drouin says he started the CO2 detector page for the same reason he began asking people to declare positive COVID-19 cases in their schools: data transparency.
"All data known to date that is used to determine action plans by schools and school boards are underestimating the number of classes with air quality issues, which is much bigger than the 10 per cent quoted by [Quebec Education] Minister [Jean-François] Roberge," he said. "In addition, the government did not commit to making the data available."
Last September, Quebec's education ministry said it would install 90,000 CO2 readers in elementary, high school, vocational and adult education classrooms across the province.
This came after the ministry issued a call for tenders over the summer, with the goal of being able to monitor indoor air quality through temperature and humidity.
"The government asked the service centers to make a daily average of the measurements taken by the readers," information of Covid Écoles Québec explains. "The measurement is done every five minutes during the day and every hour in the evening and at night."
However, Drouin states that according to these types of calculations, average CO2 levels will decrease because students aren't present in classrooms at night.
"It is therefore important to know the true measurements while the children are in class," he said.
Last week, the Quebec government confirmed that 68 per cent of its 90,000 CO2 readers were already installed in classrooms.
The promise had been to put a reader in each classroom of every school by the end of December 2021.
Covid Écoles Québec also created a page for people to declare a positive COVID-19 rapid test -- something the Quebec government has yet to build, causing inaccurate tallies of cases in the province every day.
"The government encourages citizens not to obtain a confirmatory PCR test following a positive rapid test result," the website notes. "This greatly underestimates the number of daily cases."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Appeals court overturns Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction from landmark trial
New York’s highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction, finding the judge at the landmark #MeToo trial prejudiced the ex-movie mogul with improper rulings, including a decision to let women testify about allegations that weren’t part of the case.
BREAKING Honda to get up to $5B in govt help for EV battery, assembly plants
Honda is set to build an electric vehicle battery plant next to its Alliston, Ont., assembly plant, which it is retooling to produce fully electric vehicles, all part of a $15-billion project that is expected to include up to $5 billion in public money.
MPP Sarah Jama asked to leave Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
MPP Sarah Jama was asked to leave the Legislative Assembly of Ontario by House Speaker Ted Arnott on Thursday for wearing a keffiyeh, a garment that is banned at Queen’s Park.
CTE: Researchers believe widespread brain injury may contribute to veteran suicide rate
Researchers are working to better understand if some Canadian military veterans may be suffering from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, also known as CTE -- a disorder previously found in the brains of professional football and hockey players after their death.
1 arrested in northern Alberta during public shelter order
Residents of John D'Or Prairie, a community on the Little Red River Cree Nation in northern Alberta, were told to take shelter Thursday morning during a police operation.
Secret $70M Lotto Max winners break their silence
During a special winner celebration near their hometown, Doug and Enid shared the story of how they discovered they were holding a Lotto Max ticket worth $70 million and how they kept this huge secret for so long.
Remains from a mother-daughter cold case were found nearly 24 years later, after a deathbed confession from the suspect
A West Virginia father is getting some sense of closure after authorities found the remains of his young daughter and her mother following a deathbed confession from the man believed to have fatally shot them nearly two decades ago.
New deep-water channel allows first ship to pass Key bridge wreckage in Baltimore
The first cargo ship passed through a newly opened deep-water channel in Baltimore on Thursday after being stuck in the harbor since the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed four weeks ago, halting most maritime traffic through the city's port.
First in Canada procedure performed at London, Ont. hospital
A London man has become the first person in Canada to receive a robotic assisted surgery on his spine. Dave Myeh suffered from debilitating, chronic back pain that led to sciatica in his right now and extreme pain in his lower back.