Alberta Health Services has declared a COVID-19 outbreak at Jasper Junior/Senior High School.
According to , there are two confirmed cases of the virus at Jasper Jr/Sr High School - one confirmed on Oct. 13 and a second on Oct. 16.
A case of COVID-19 has also been confirmed at 脡cole Desrochers, according to dated Oct. 16.
The letter states that the infection risk to the general population of the school is low, and that all students who had close contact with the confirmed case would be contacted by Public Health staff.
In Alberta, schools with two or more confirmed cases are identified on Alberta Health's , which shows the current status of COVID-19 in K-12 schools across the province.
Jasper Junior/Senior High has not yet been added to the map, but from Alberta Health Services to staff, student and visitors to the school on Oct. 16 confirms the outbreak.
It states that Public Health staff are investigating to determine who may have been exposed at the school of COVID-19 during their infectious period, and that the risk of the general population in the school becoming infected because of these cases is low.
Updated 4.05pm: The outbreak has now been added to Alberta Health's map.
Staff and students who have been identified as a close contact of the confirmed COVID-19 cases will be contacted by Public Health.
Across the province, 344 schools have reported cases of COVID-19 since August 30, 211 of which were in the last two weeks.
There are 81 schools on 'Outbreak' status (two to four cases) and 22 on 'Watch', with five or more cases.
Definitions for confirmed cases in schools:
Alert (1 case)
- Parents will be notified by their child鈥檚 school as soon as one confirmed case is identified within the school. This is known as an alert. These are not currently included in the map.
Outbreak (2+ cases)
- An outbreak is declared when there are two or more confirmed cases in a school setting within a 14 day period where disease could have been acquired or transmitted in the school. Any school meeting this definition will be reported on the map.
Outbreak over
- A school outbreak is declared over when there have been no new confirmed cases in a school for 28 days.
COVID-19 cases in Jasper
The three reported cases at Jasper's schools are three of nine currently active in the municipality.
For the other two cases there is no further information at this time. For confidentiality reasons, Alberta Health does not provide any information about patients, including if the case is from a known exposure or community spread.
The reported active number of cases in Jasper is from , last updated on Friday, Oct. 16.
The province will release updated numbers this afternoon (Monday, Oct. 19).
Updated @ 4.05 p.m.: There are now nine active cases of COVID-19 in Jasper, reported in Alberta Health's daily map update.
