VANCOUVER -- After adding two schools to its list of public exposure notices on Friday, Island Health added two more on Saturday.
The latest additions to the list are École Victor-Brodeur in Esquimalt and Pleasant Valley Elementary in Nanaimo.
École Victor-Brodeur's exposures happened on April 12, 13 and 14, while Pleasant Valley Elementary's happened on April 13, according to the health authority.
Island Health defines "exposure" in the school context as "the presence of lab confirmed COVID-19 case(s) in the school during the period of communicability."
There are currently 17 exposures listed on the Island Health website. Exposure notifications are removed from the list 14 days after the date of the last exposure.
As of Friday, there were 555 active coronavirus cases in the Island Health region, and the health authority had revealed the locations of 446 of them. There were 256 cases in the South Island, 150 in the Central Island and 40 in the North Island.
During her presentation on the province's modelling of the COVID-19 pandemic Thursday, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry cited case studies from the Lower Mainland that she argued show that schools are not a significant driver of coronavirus transmission.
Roughly eight per cent of COVID-19 cases in schools in Vancouver Coastal Health between Sept. 10 and Dec. 18 were connected to transmission that happened in the school setting.
Similarly, 13 per cent of cases in schools in Fraser Health between Jan. 1 and March 7 were connected to in-school transmission, Henry said.
Still, teachers across the province, including on Vancouver Island, have been lobbying for less in-person instruction as case counts continue to climb.
