Kindergarten to Grade 12 teachers, staff and administrators across the province will soon have access to 200,000 COVID-19 rapid antigen test kits sourced by a Burnaby company.
The province said the test kits will be sent for use by symptomatic school staff. The allocation of tests was received from Arton Laboratories Inc. in Burnaby.
"Rapid antigen tests are an additional tool that can be used to support the continuity of learning in schools with the aim to reduce transmission of COVID-19," a news release stated.
The number of teaching staff, and non-teaching staff, will help determine the number of tests given to each school district, independent schools and First Nation schools.
The province says there are roughly 86,700 public school employees, 16,000 independent school employees and 1,000 employees in First Nation schools.
Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry's office and the Ministry of Health will continue to direct how the tests are best used as part of the pandemic response, including if more tests will be sent for use in the K-12 sector.
"The Ministry of Education continues to engage with experts on ventilation and work with school districts to improve ventilation systems, including the deployment of HEPA filters in classrooms that do not have access to mechanical ventilation systems.
"Since the beginning of the pandemic, B.C. has invested $114.5 million to assist school districts in upgrading ventilation in thousands of classrooms across the province. Additional funding to support further ventilation improvements and upgrades in K-12 public schools will soon be made available."
This past Tuesday (Jan. 18), Henry implemented a new order that requires schools across the province to provide proof of vaccination status for its teachers.
The order applies to all staff across B.C.’s public, independent and francophone schools, and includes sharing how many doses of vaccine an employee has received and when they were vaccinated.
“An employer must request proof of vaccination from each staff member and must keep a record of each staff member’s vaccination status,” Henry wrote in her order.
That information must be held in a way that does not reveal an individual’s identity. In the case of an outbreak or exposure, schools are now required to act as if staff who have not provided proof of vaccination are unvaccinated.
- with files from Stefan Labbé, Glacier Media
