By Candice Zhang

On Wednesday, October 14, Chris McGrath, George Brown College’s (GBC) vice-president of student success, announced that further measures will be implemented to prevent the spread of COVID-19 on GBC campuses. He explained the new protocols through a student-wide email, indicating that daily screening and contact tracing will be administered as another COVID-19 case has been detected among a student from the Casa Loma campus.

In order to protect the students from further exposure, McGrath wrote that the new procedures will be implemented starting from next week.

“As of Monday, Oct. 19, students’ and employees will need to complete the online health screening each day they come to campus,” McGrath wrote in the email.

Other than health screenings and tests, the college will also implement its own contact-tracing system.

“While [Toronto Public Health] is continuing to advise George Brown regarding COVID-19, we will now be doing our own on-campus contact tracing,” McGrath wrote. “This means that if you had close contact on campus with someone who tested positive, you will be contacted directly by George Brown.”

After an individual was tested positive on the St. James campus, McGrath informed the GBC community that another case has been reported at the Casa Loma campus. However, the individual was last reported to be on campus on September 21, meaning more than 14 days have passed.

“There is no cause for concern for anyone who has not already experienced symptoms,” wrote McGrath. “But this serves as an important reminder that students who tested positive should let the college know immediately.”