'Heartbreaking': Edmonton-area NICU nurse frustrated after 7-year-old son contracts COVID-19 at school

EDMONTON -

While sitting in a staff meeting at an Edmonton-area hospital, a NICU nurse received confirmation her son tested positive for COVID-19.

Cheryl Duggan told CTV News Edmonton her seven-year-old only attended school for seven days when they were notified he may have been exposed to another positive student.

On Saturday, Duggan said he started developing COVID-19 symptoms including a high fever and cough. So she wasn't "too surprised" when her son's test came back positive.

“It’s just been heartbreaking to see my son and not be able to do anything to help him, and know that I just have to wait this out.”

Duggan explained If health measures were still in place at Alberta schools, she believes her son would have been protected and he wouldn’t have been exposed to COVID-19.

“Anything at this point is better than nothing,” she said.

“Contact tracing was a fundamental pillar of notification and mitigating spread of COVID in schools,” Wing Li, with Support Our Students Alberta, added.

• 4 central Alberta schools under investigation for COVID-19 outbreaks

Li told CTV News parents are just realizing the affects of having the health measures eliminated now that kids have been back in the class for just over a week.

“Not knowing when your child was exposed in a classroom or in a close setting at school is concerning,” Li said.

“We echo the call to reinstate contact tracing for schools. Public health needs to step in with their resources and their infrastructure. Schools don’t have the ability to do contact tracing, they’re not public health officials.”

Duggan explained to CTV News she feels frustrated with the current climate as she’s gone above and beyond to keep her family safe over the past 18 months.

“I feel that there’s a large population of kids that aren’t yet safe, so I’m choosing to speak up,” she said.

“My voice is for them and for the babies that I work with in my NICU and the people that cannot yet be vaccinated for whatever reason.”

The provincial website does not currently list COVID-19 outbreaks in schools.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Amanda Anderson