Ottawa parents take contact tracing into their own hands

Ottawa woman has taken contact tracing in schools and daycares into her own hands by creating an online group that provides parents with information about positive COVID-19 cases in city daycares and classrooms .

Christie Cowan, a nurse and mother of three, started the Ottawa Schools & Daycare Contact Tracing Facebook group last week thinking it would only reach a few hundred members, but membership has already topped 5,000 .

“It’s quite telling that people aren’t happy with the lack of contact tracing,” Cowan said.

We don’t want to need it. But there is a need that needs to be filled, so someone had to step in and do it.– Kristy Simons, mother and early childhood educator

“A lot of families have immunocompromised family members, elderly family members, young children who can’t be vaccinated…if we’re told about head lice, and hands, feet and mouth, I think ‘It’s also appropriate that we’re being told about COVID,’ she added.

Ontario officials say schools will now be monitored for absences instead of specific positive tests for the virus.

Under the new government directive, Ottawa Public Health (OPH) will no longer notify families of cases in schools or daycares.

The Ottawa Catholic School Board said it will notify parents if the school receives confirmation of a positive COVID case at school, where possible, but principals will not be involved in the contact tracing.

He also said the council had been advised by OPH that most school contacts are not considered high risk and only need to self-isolate if they have symptoms.

Cowan’s group is organized into albums that represent the various French and English school boards in Ottawa, as well as child care and before and after school programs. Each album contains photos with the name of a specific school or daycare.

WATCH: The nurse and her mother explain why she started a Facebook group;

The group relies on “self-declaration”

Members are encouraged to comment on the photo with information about people in their household who will be absent from school for COVID-related or suspected COVID-related reasons. Group members are asked to “self-report” only first-hand cases and outbreaks in their respective schools and daycares.

When Cowan realized how quickly the group was growing, she reached out to the members for help adding albums and moderating discussions.

Kristy Simons, an early childhood educator in Ottawa, says she immediately signed up to help because she is immunocompromised and also has two children in school.

“When you don’t have the full picture, you can’t make informed decisions for yourself and your family, and that’s just a risk I’m not willing to take,” Simons said.

Simons said she’s slept an average of four or five hours since the group started due to the high number of messages in the group’s inbox.

“It just proves there’s definitely a need for it. I mean, the goal is to shut down the group. You don’t want this group. We don’t want to need it. But there’s a need that needs to be filled, so someone had to step in and do it,” she said.

I wanted others to know that the test was positive

Miranda Boyer said she joined the group after she and her daughter both tested positive for COVID-19 in a rapid test on Friday.

“We just wanted to do our due diligence to let anyone know,” Boyer said.

Her daughter’s daycare eventually informed the parents, but Boyer said she wasn’t sure they would, so she wanted to go the extra mile.

Cowan said she understands there is a changing way of dealing with the pandemic, but she still thinks parents have a right to know if their child has been in contact with a positive case.

“I know there are a lot of mixed feelings about whether you’re doing the right thing. [sending your child to school]and I think whatever decision you’ve made for yourself and your family is the right one,” she said.