The Grey Bruce Health Unit is working with the Bluewater District School Board to address cases of COVID-19 associated with students attending Osprey Central School in the Municipality of Grey Highlands. As a result of the positive cases, the proposed school re-organization will be delayed.
Public Health is the lead in all outbreaks and case management and will let you know if you are a close contact with someone who has COVID-19, based on a thorough risk assessment completed only by Public Health.
Determining who is a close contact is a decision that can only be made by Public Health. Anyone identified as a contact to the confirmed cases, both in and outside the school environment, will be contacted by a Public Health case manager directly. Those at risk of infection will be contacted within 24 hours of the investigation.
Anyone NOT contacted by Public Health is not considered at risk and need not take any additional steps including asymptomatic testing.
The Grey Bruce Health Unit will be deploying a mobile assessment centre in the Osprey community later this week to test those who are considered at risk as identified by Public Health. There is no value in anyone being tested ahead of this as results would be unreliable and would put individuals at risk of more testing than is required.
While there are cases associated with the school, these cases belong to one household. In our assessment, the transmission to them did not take place at the school. Currently there are no outbreaks, that is evidence of transmission from person to person, in any schools or childcare centres in Grey Bruce.
The family of the children who tested positive have been contacted directly by our COVID-19 Case and Contact Management Team. We are working with the family and the Bluewater District School Board to identify others, both in and out of the school environment, who may have been exposed and determine their risk level.
All contact tracing and determination of individual and community risk is made by Public Health. This is true of all cases, whether in schools, workplaces or the community. A health care provider or school official cannot make this decision.
