The Grey Bruce Health Unit is working with the Bruce-Grey Catholic District School Board to address a probable case of COVID-19 associated with Sacred Heart High School in the Municipality of Brockton. Probable cases are not lab confirmed, but high-risk contacts of an active case, and also symptomatic.

Staff and students that have had close contact with the affected case have been notified by Public Health and are isolating. Anyone NOT contacted by Public Health already, is not considered at risk and need not take any additional steps including asymptomatic testing.

In our assessment, the transmission to this case 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.

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 case, 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.

Public Health will ensure every contact will receive information on an appropriate date for testing, if required. The results for anyone tested ahead of this date would be unreliable and would put individuals at risk of more testing than is required.

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.