the health checks, in use in school districts around the province, originate from an example the b.c. centre for disease control (bccdc) set out in a sept. 11 guidance document for teachers and administrators. in that document, the bccdc recommends anyone experiencing fever, chills, cough, shortness of breath, loss of sense of smell or taste, nausea, vomiting or diarrhea should stay at home rather than come to school.
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taking the vancouver school board’s health check as an example, the district states that all parents, guardians and caregivers must conduct an assessment of their kids each day before school. those experiencing one key symptom are asked to stay at home for 24 hours from when it first appeared. if the symptom improves, the student can return to school, according to the document.
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some students may be referred for covid-19 testing. for children and youth in kindergarten to grade 12 those tests now involve swishing and gargling sterile salt water and spitting into a tube, according to the bccdc . but younger children and those who can’t perform the mouth-rinse instructions will instead need to have their noses swabbed.
while there have been several recent covid-19 exposures in b.c. schools , only about five per cent of covid-19 cases in the province are among those aged 0-19, according to the bccdc. that is a cohort that makes up about a fifth of the population.