'Heartbreaking': Edmonton-area NICU nurse frustrated after 7-year-old son contracts COVID-19 at school
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.
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
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Several flight attendants from Pakistan have gone missing after landing in Canada
Multiple flight attendants from Pakistan International Airlines have abandoned their jobs and are believed to have sought asylum in Canada in the past year and a half, a spokesperson for the government-owned airline says.
Premiers not being truthful about carbon tax, Trudeau says while sparks fly in Ottawa
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Conservative premiers across the country are 'not telling the truth' when it comes to the carbon tax. Trudeau's comments came as fresh sparks were flying in Ottawa at a recalled House of Commons committee.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before Baltimore bridge collapse, officials say
The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent 'routine engine maintenance' in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
'Ninja,' Twitch's biggest streamer, is diagnosed with skin cancer
American gamer and Twitch superstar, Tyler 'Ninja' Blevins, revealed he was diagnosed with melanoma, a form of skin cancer.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
Here's what Trudeau says the upcoming federal budget will offer renters
The federal government will create a new 'Canadian Renters' Bill of Rights,' which would require landlords to disclose their properties' rental price history to prospective tenants.
Families shocked after Niagara Falls hotel cancels bookings made year in advance of solar eclipse
After having the foresight to book their Niagara Falls hotel rooms more than a year in advance, several families planning to take in the solar eclipse next month were shocked to find out their reservations had been cancelled.