By Stuart Benson
Thirteen students who attended daycare at École Sainte-Élisabeth in Cantley were told to self-isolate after a student received a positive COVID-19 diagnosis.
Parents were notified on Aug. 31 by William Custeau, director of École Sainte-Élisabeth, that parents of children who had been in close contact with the child had been told to self-isolate and to contact public health authorities.
According to Mathieu Daoust, communication advisor for the Draveurs School Services Centre, classes had not yet started and only the daycare was open, and that the child who tested positive did not attend classes on Aug. 31.
The CSSD asked parents to monitor their children for symptoms and to immediately notify the school administration, stay home, and book an appointment for a COVID-19 test if symptoms develop.
School cases rising in Outaouais
As of Sept. 4, the province reported 118 positive cases of COVID-19 in schools with 30 of those being reported in the Outaouais.
Since Sept. 1, nine primary and secondary schools had reported at least one case of COVID-19, though as of Sept. 8 the province's official list still listed École Sainte-Élisabeth as potential, and did not include the confirmed case at Wakefield Elementary reported Sept. 7, nor the case reported at Cégep Heritage College reported on Aug. 31.
The lack of up-to-date data has motivated citizens to track the numbers themselves, including the crowd-sourced website covidecolesquebec.org, which allows citizens and parents to submit cases themselves to the site and collates them into a list and an interactive case map, which does include Wakefield Elementary and École Sainte-Élisabeth cases.