COVID-19: Massive screening in an elementary school in Boisbriand

A major COVID-19 screening operation targeting students and staff was triggered Thursday at Gabrielle-Roy elementary school in Boisbriand due to a COVID-19 outbreak in this Laurentian establishment.

On Sunday, public health authorities contacted the Seigneurie-des-Mille-Îles School Service Center (CSSMI) to inform them of a first positive case of COVID-19. Then, the toll quickly rose to around fifteen cases.

The affected students are in quarantine at home. It was not possible, Thursday, to know the state of health of the latter.

The authorities organized two days of massive screening in the school, which has 360 students. Testing began in the school gymnasium on Thursday and will continue this Friday. Children must be accompanied by a parent to take samples of secretions from the nasal mucous membranes.

“It is important to specify that parents can refuse,” said Mélanie Poirier, communications coordinator at the CSSMI. The latter indicated that the parents are very collaborative and very satisfied with the procedures.

“They don’t need to go and wait in testing centers. It is much easier for them as well. It is going very well to date and the courses are continuing, ”she said.

Ms. Poirier mentioned that the parents would have the results Sunday at the end of the day, adding that the classes will continue unless otherwise advised by the Department of Public Health.

A girl and her mother met on the spot on Thursday were satisfied with the progress of the operation.

“It hurts a bit, but I’m happy to have passed the test,” said 8-year-old Dallie Barbe. Her mom was happy with the way things were taken care of and isn’t too worried about the outcome. She said her daughter has not been in contact with the affected students.

Other parents said they were not worried about the disease, but rather about what happens next.

“It is not the disease that scares us, it is the organization of work in the event of a positive result”, explained Clautilde Ngiaden, 33, whose son, Fred Dilane Signe-Nde, 11, has been tested.

This Boisbriand researcher is completing a doctorate in biomedical engineering at Polytechnique Montréal and is already behind schedule due to the pandemic. She also has a 3-year-old girl in CPE that she will have to isolate at home if her boy is tested positive.

“My 11-year-old can keep busy while I do my chores, but my three-year-old daughter is going to knock on my office door screaming mum every five minutes. I’m going to have to take a break, ”the lady laughed.

The stepfather of a 10-year-old student also said he was much more worried about the organization of work than by the virus. “We both work, but her mother works in the health network. This is what may be complicated. When we heard the news, we placed her in isolation at home, ”said Jean-François Proulx.