Student at Briercrest College tests positive for COVID-19

A student at Briercrest College in Caronport has tested positive for COVID-19 and was put into self-isolation on Monday.

All students were required to be tested in their home province before coming to the campus. In this case, the student was tested but didn’t receive the results until hours after arriving on campus.

A.J. Crocker, vice-president of marketing and recruitment at the college, said contact tracing started immediately.

“The person was in close contact with one other student, who is also in isolation now and everyone else that was within SHA’s distance (restrictions) — where we needed to be contacting them — we’ve contacted and we are thankful for our proactive approach,” Crocker said.

Crocker added the college has several measures in place for when something like this happens.

“We anticipated there would be a few asymptomatic cases that we can catch really quickly. One of those did come through where we identified very quickly and they were put directly into the isolation dorm,” Crocker said. “While we have the isolation dorm, we also have a daily health screening and everyone is in very limited cohorts.”

The Saskatchewan Health Authority was on campus on Tuesday to offer testing to all students who were unable to be tested in their home province. All staff underwent testing prior to Sept. 1.

Caronport is about 25 kilometres west of Moose Jaw.

Shawn Slaght, Discover Moose Jaw