All the cases of COVID-19 clusters in local schools occurred in North Delta.
That’s according to a new Fraser Health report which provides a few numbers breaking down cases of the virus, including variants of concern, transmitted within schools in the region.
The FHA notes the report covers COVID-19 cluster and outbreak cases reported to Public Health from Jan. 1 to March 7, 2021.
The study period ended just before COVID-19 cases province-wide went into record-high daily numbers.
The report covered students and staff who attended K-12 public and independent schools in the region, indicating that, overall, there had been a total of 2,049 overall school-associated cases reported.
The health region notes that represents less than one per cent of the total estimated staff and school population in Fraser region.
The report also notes 19.6 per cent of COVID-19 cases were associated with a confirmed cluster or outbreak.
Those involved 115 confirmed clusters in 96 schools, involving 347 cases.
Cluster sizes tended to be limited to two cases, although one outbreak in one school involved 54 cases.
The FHA also noted 72.8 per cent of clusters were attributed to introduction of COVID into schools by students, while staff are known to be involved in 42.4 per cent of transmission events.
Approximately eight per cent of in-school transmission in confirmed clusters were associated with variants of concern cases.
The report also noted that of the 267 cases that were likely, or possibly, acquired from school, 88 (4.3 per cent of all school-associated cases) led to household/community transmission, and mostly within the household, while 87 per cent of school-associated cases were acquired in the household or community.
As far as the directionality of known in-school transmission events within confirmed clusters, the health region notes 125 cases involved direct student-to-student transmission, which included 17 cases of variants of concern.
There were 27 cases of student-to-staff transmission, which include one variant of concern case.
There were also 23 staff-to-staff transmissions, one of which was a variant of concern.
There were also 51 cases of staff-to-student transmissions but none involved a variant of concern, while in-school transmission in a dozen other cases wasn’t clear, according the health region.
The FHA also notes there were an additional 333 cases with suspect acquisition in school that were not included in confirmed clusters as additional analysis is warranted to determine if they’re linked or not to in-school acquisition.
According to the FHA map, no Delta private schools had clusters or outbreaks but six public schools experienced it, none in South Delta.
The numbers also indicate that during that time, there were seven student-to-student cases of transmission including one being a variant of concern and one a case of a staff-to-staff transmission but no variant involved.
The B.C. Teachers Federation noted the study was also conducted when COVID-19 variants accounted for only a few cases, unlike now as the variant cases have grown in the province.
