EAST CENTRAL — An online digital COVID-19 contract tracing form will be replacing the paper forms used in all Horizon School Division schools by visitors and guests.
These forms contain the visitor’s name, location visited, person they are meeting, date, and email, should they come in contact with someone who is later discovered to carry COVID-19.
The online forms will contain the same information, but according to Kevin Garinger, the division’s director of education, this will make it easier for both the school and Saskatchewan Health Authority to access it.
“It ends up in a repository that we can access as Horizon School Division and provide as necessary to Health if there is a need related to COVID-19 in the school,” Garinger said.
“The online form just makes it really quick and easy, and certainly accessible by our partners in health.”
Before now, paper forms would be collected by the school and manually shredded after it’s deemed to no longer be needed. Garinger said this system worked well, but not without challenges.
“It can be extremely challenging when I may need the information about who’s in the school and now we have to hunt it down in a different way. When we have access to this repository it’s easy for my staff to be able to pull any information.”
Currently, the division is working to implement an auto-delete on all digital forms after 30 days. The update is expected to be completed within the month.
“Schools have done a good job at keeping them for a long time, but we really only need them for a month,” he said. “We’ll house this and continue to delete it as necessary.”
In the circumstances that someone doesn’t have access to data or wi-fi, Garinger said the individual can check in with administration at the school office, as they will have access to the forms and can enter the information.
He said the school division still expects visitors to call beforehand and be expected before arriving.
“Our whole goal is to just know who's going to be in our buildings, we’re trying to make sure we keep our children and staff safe, so when we know in advance it just helps us for preparing and that sort of thing.”
These forms can be accessed through phone or computer by scanning the QR code or visiting https://forms.horizonsd.ca/screening.
Staff and students are not required or expected to fill out the forms.
