Rapid tests coming to some Quebec schools to curb spread of Delta
Quebec schools are already using new strategies to contain the spread of COVID-19, and its most contagious variant, after more than 600 schools reported at least one case of the coronavirus among students or staff since students returned to class.
One of the methods they're banking on is bringing in rapid testing for students.
Some are already sounding the alarm on the number of cases just weeks into the new school year, including Olivier Drouin, founder of the COVID Ecoles initiative.
“The wave in schools this time around, this particular school year, is two to three times faster and more cases in schools than last year,” he said in an interview.
To try and curb the spread of the virus, the province is going to deploy rapid tests to certain schools with the hope of catching cases before they lead to outbreaks.
The goal is to roll this out ahead of the upcoming flu season.
“We now have tons of other respiratory viruses circulating, all of which, when you look at them in an infected child, will present as very similar symptoms,” said Dr. Caroline Quach, an infectious disease specialist and pediatrician at the Université de Montreal.
Dr. Quach studied the use of rapid tests in schools last year and found they were only reliable when students presented symptoms.
However, she said even if asymptomatic cases aren't caught, the tests will still make a difference.
“Those that are usually missed are those with a lower viral load so, therefore, should be less likely to transmit,” she said.
For now, the health ministry said, rapid testing will only take place in schools in COVID-19 hotspots, including Montreal North and Parc Extension.
School officials were still working out the details with the province on Monday, but unions say they’re worried about the increased workload for teachers, who, they say, already have enough on their plate.
“We’ve already added tons of work onto the backs of teachers and the fact that they’re now adding something else, which is the administration of rapid tests, doesn’t make sense to us,” said Heidi Yetman, the president of the Quebec Provincial Association of Teachers.
Yetman adds she would prefer that people be hired to administer the rapid tests in schools instead of relying on teachers, but she agreed that something needs to be done to help push the virus out of Quebec classrooms.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
Concerns about plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall plexiglass barriers.
OPP officer said 'someone's going to get hurt' before wrong-way Hwy. 401 crash
As multiple Durham police cruisers were chasing a robbery suspect on the wrong side of Highway 401 Monday night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer shared his concerns, telling a dispatcher, "Someone's going to get hurt."
Canada's most wanted fugitive arrested in P.E.I. in connection with Toronto homicide
A suspect in a fatal shooting in Toronto’s east end last summer has been arrested in Charlottetown, just one week after he topped a list of Canada’s most wanted fugitives.
Poilievre returns to House unrepentant for calling Trudeau 'wacko,' Speaker not resigning
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Toddler of Phoenix first responder dies after bounce house goes airborne
A two-year-old child died after a strong gust of wind sent the bounce house he was in airborne and into a neighbouring lot in central Arizona, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office said.
Plane overshoots runway at airport in St. John's, N.L., no injuries reported
Investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada are headed to St. John's, N.L., after a plane overshot a runway at the city's airport this afternoon.
A teen was found buried in a basement in New York. An engraved ring helped police learn her identity two decades later
Investigators have finally revealed the identity of an unknown victim nicknamed 'Midtown Jane Doe,' who was found in the Hell's Kitchen neighbourhood of New York City two decades ago.