New Brunswick to stop tracking COVID-19 cases in schools next week

The Department of Education will stop collecting and sharing information about COVID-19 cases in schools, effective Monday, with the start of March Break.

When classes resume, parents will no longer have to report their child's positive diagnosis to their school, said department spokesperson FlavioNienow.

"Given the changes to Public Health restrictions effective March 14,families and school staff will no longer be required to self-report cases of COVID-19 to schools and child-care facilities as part of their own contact tracing," he said in an emailed statement Thursday.

The province is set to lift all COVID-19 restrictions,including mask mandates,physical distancingand isolation requirements, by March 14,when the emergency order ends.

The department had been"holding meetings with stakeholders" to decide whether it would continue to track cases after March 14.

The department and school districts are no longer in a position to continue collecting this information or share it publicly.- Flavio Nienow, Department of Education spokesperson

Thursday's decision comes as the department recorded 99 new self-reported cases of COVIDacross 59 schools. These cases include both students and staff.

There have been 12,395 cases at schools since the beginning of the school year 9,917 of them since Feb. 1.

"We have worked with partners across the system to look at this issue, and we've determined that the department and school districts are no longer in a position to continue collecting this information or share it publicly on the Healthy and Safe Schools website," said Nienow.

"As schools will be closed during March Break, families will not be able to self-report cases during that time.This means the department will stop collecting and sharing information publicly beginning March 7," he said.

"Families will still be required to notify the school of any absences, due to illness or otherwise, and we will continue to track student absenteeism to monitor the situation with Public Health."

School districts will notify families of the changes directly. An advisory has also beenposted on the department's Healthy and Safe Schools website.