WHITEHORSE – Yukon’s education minister says the territory will no longer issue COVID-19 exposure advisories in schools.

Jeanie McLean says the Yukon Center for Disease Control monitors class attendance to make sure kids are safe in school.

She says keeping schools open is a top priority for the territory, though she acknowledged the stress on staff to make sure schools are safe and keep operating.

McLean says she understands parents may be concerned about no longer receiving notices of COVID-19 exposure from schools, but health officials are closely monitoring attendance.

Yukon schools have been open for three weeks and McLean says she knows the change may seem drastic, but action will be taken if it is determined there is an increased risk of COVID-19.

She says parents should follow Yukon’s traffic light system to monitor for COVID-19, which places the diagnosis in red, yellow and green categories.

If a person has symptoms in the red category or two symptoms in the yellow category, they are told to stay home.

Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Catherine Elliott said 39 more cases of COVID-19 had been identified in the past week, while the death toll rose to 16 people.

Elliott says the territory should be “proud” of the work it does to keep schools open with its “right approach” to staff and student safety.

She says she thinks the territory is currently in the middle of its Omicron variant wave.

“We haven’t started to see that decline.”

Elliott also asks parents to keep up with efforts to vaccinate children against COVID-19, saying vaccination remains the best protection against the virus.

This report from The Canadian Press was first published on January 25, 2022.