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Tracker says B.C. schools recording COVID-19 exposures at 10 times last year’s rate

Volunteer moms have logged more than 1,000 cases, ‘and it is only early October’
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FILE – Grade one students wear masks as they attend class at Honore Mercier elementary school Tuesday, March 9, 2021 in Montreal.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

This time last year, there had been 101 coronavirus exposure events recorded at schools throughout B.C.

One year later, according to an independent provincial tracking project, there have been more than 1,036.

“We have logged over 1,000 school exposures since the start of the school year and it is only early October,” the BC School Covid Tracker posted on social media Oct. 6.

The Tracker is run by two Lower Mainland moms, who voluntarily keep track of the province’s exposures. “That is over 1,000 sick children and school staff and even more family members that have gotten sick because of schools without adequate safety measures. Let that sink in.”

So far this year there have been 441 schools with COVID, according to the Tracker.

“Last year at this time we had 84 schools with COVID.”

Kathy Marliss heads the Tracker, which crowdsources letters and emails sent to individual parents and publishes their exposure information in a mass 78-page online spreadsheet. The result is a semi-comprehensive look at COVID-19 exposures, clusters and outbreaks in schools across B.C., dating back to September 2020.

When the Richmond mom started the site a year ago, it was to create an accessible database for concerned parents.

Today, the Tracker has 9,760 followers on Twitter and 57,221 on Facebook.

- with files from Jane Skrypnek, Black Press

READ MORE: B.C. parents crowdsourcing COVID-19 in lieu of provincial information

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Jennifer Smith

About the Author: Jennifer Smith

Vernon has always been my home, and I've been working at The Morning Star since 2004.
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