A mysterious positive COVID-19 case on the Ontario list today with links to Simcoe County raises questions about who reported the case to provincial officials.
The Ontario COVID-19 case list, which was updated on Oct. 20 at 10:30 a.m., lists a singular case in a local school board partner. The case is listed to be in the Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board (SMCDSB), with the location as Bradford West Gwillimbury.
The last cases reported by the board in a school in Bradford were two cases at St. Marie of the Incarnation Catholic School on Oct. 13.
When contacted by BradfordToday, a school board official stated they were not aware of this new case.
“We haven’t heard anything,” said Pauline Stevenson, communications co-ordinator with the SMCDSB, and added that the health unit might have more information.
Stevenson said any employee or administrator with the board would be considered a school case, and would be reported as such.
“I don’t know of anything current in Bradford,” she said.
When contacted by BradfordToday, a representative with the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit also said she had no knowledge of the case.
“I don’t even know why it’s listed through the school board, because we certainly wouldn’t have provided that to them. It might have been whoever the partner is who supplied it. I have no idea who that is,” said Leslie Gordon, spokesperson with the health unit.
“There is no information I have to share with you about that case because we don’t identify them that way,” she added.
School board partners are defined as groups that work with school boards, such as school-bus drivers through transportation consortiums or health professionals.
“If an individual person has a case that’s not related to an outbreak, we don’t give out any information about it,” said Gordon. “We protect privacy. We don’t provide any information that could identify a person. There’s no need for anybody to know. The only thing anybody needs to know is that it’s circulating in that community and to take precautions.”
When reached for comment on Tuesday, John Barbato, chief executive officer with the Simcoe County Transportation Consortium, said he was not aware of any COVID-19 cases in local school-bus drivers.
“We have to direct all inquires back to the school board. That’s where we’re getting all our information,” he said.
UPDATE (4:50 p.m.): Stevenson provided additional information to BradfordToday on this case after this story had been published.
"We believe the reporting on the provincial website is related to St. Marie of the Incarnation Catholic School," said Stevenson. "There were two cases, involving two individuals. One classroom was impacted. One of the cases was identified as being related to a school partner - for privacy reasons we cannot provide additional information about who the partner is."
