Fourth COVID-19 case confirmed at Merritt Secondary

School District 58 Nicola-Similkameen is again informing parents of a positive case of COVID-19 among the community at Merritt Secondary School.

This is the fourth letter to be sent home to parents since the resumption of school after the winter break.

Accompany the letter from the district was a letter from the Interior Health Authority and Medical Health Officer Rob Parker.

“As many of you are aware, there are COVID-19 cases linked to your school community. We understand that this has triggered anxiety among students and parents, particularly given the potential exposures have affected students and staff. We can confirm that an extremely small number of the local school community has contracted COVID-19. As a consequence of the potential COVID-19 exposures, a number of students and staff have been asked to self-isolate,” wrote Parker.

“These exposures are not unexpected and are a reflection of what we are seeing in the community,” added Parker.

Speaking to Q101 News earlier this week, SD58 Superintendent Steve McNiven reiterated the safety measures being taken at the school to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

“With these exposures certainly comes some extra cleaning on our part. Really want parents to know that deep cleaning is taking place on a regular basis. We have our fog-sprayers in the school on a daily basis at MSS. The same twice a day cleaning across our district,” said McNiven.

“Many of the protocols that we’re reinforcing are really the most basic ones, that includes hand washing, mask-wearing where appropriate, daily health checks, distancing. We also have some structures in place to help with our transitions, so we have multiple lunch breaks for example at Merritt Secondary,” added McNiven.

There have been calls from the Merritt community to have the school closed during the outbreak. It should be noted that closing the school is a decision made at the Ministry of Education level in partnership with Interior Health and not at the discretion of SD58. 

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