WHITEHORSE — Yukon's education minister says the territory will no longer be issuing COVID-19 exposure notifications at schools.
Jeanie McLean says the Yukon Centre for Disease Control is monitoring class attendance in an effort to ensure children are safe at schools.
She says keeping schools open is a top priority for the territory, although she acknowledged the stress on staff in making sure schools are safe and remain operating.
McLean says she understands parents may be concerned about no longer receiving COVID-19 exposure notices from schools, but health authorities are closely monitoring attendance.
Yukon's schools have been open for three weeks and McLean says she knows the change may feel like a dramatic shift, but steps will be taken if it's determined there is an increased COVID-19 risk.
She says parents should follow Yukon's traffic light system of monitoring COVID-19, which puts diagnosis in categories of red, yellow and green.
If a person has symptoms in the red category or two symptoms from the yellow category, they're told to stay home.
Acting chief medical officer of health Dr. Catherine Elliott says there have been another 39 COVID-19 cases identified in the past week, while the death toll has risen to 16 people.
Elliott says the territory should be "proud" of the work done to keep schools open with its "sound approach" for staff and student safety.
She says she believes the territory is currently in the middle of its Omicron variant wave.
"We haven't started to see that decline."
Elliott also asks that parents follow child COVID-19 vaccination efforts, saying vaccination remains the best protection against the virus.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 25, 2022.
The Canadian Press
