IPC Update

April 23, 2021 | Health, Safety & Environment Coordinator

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Dear Staff, Faculty and Students,

We have recently received a number of messages from concerned staff and students. The concern seems to be centred around positive case reports. Please know that we have been working closely with AHS and with the University of Alberta Public Health Response Team to ensure that we are managing the current province-wide COVID-19 surge in the safest manner possible.

If you have concerns or have been contacted regarding a possible COVID-19 exposure, please call or text Ronna directly 780-990-8980 or email dentIPC@ualberta.ca first. I can review your situation with you and advise you on your next steps. It is very important that you follow our set COVID-19 issues reporting processes. If you choose to not follow our established processes, then you may needlessly have to quarantine for 14 days. It is best for everyone involved, that if you have concerns you contact me before booking a test.

I want to remind everyone that routine precautions which consist of hand hygiene, a medical face mask and eye protection are a requirement whenever you may be within 2 meters of patients for any length of time or when you are anywhere in KEC or in the SimLab. A medical mask alone is the very minimum PPE that those of us who work and learn together must always have on when we are moving about Kipnes and it is a good idea to don eye protection as well if you will be close to anyone for longer than a few minutes.

A close contact for healthcare workers, as defined by Alberta Health Services is:

The key to understanding "close contact" is to assess how close, how long and wearing what.

• • How close were you to the person - within 2 meters?

  • Were you wearing appropriate PPE the entire time you were close to them? 

  • How long were you within two meters of the person when NOT wearing PPE - either in one chunk of time or cumulatively?

If you were within 2 meters of someone who is in their infectious period or known to be positive for a total of 15 minutes while NOT having appropriate PPE on for the entire 15 minutes, then you would be considered exposed. This is why it is important to contact us so that we know the circumstances of the exposure to determine whether it is considered “close contact” or not. It’s also important that our processes align with AHS because we assist them in the contact tracing process.

As we move through the pandemic, I remind everyone that you must contact me first if you are experiencing symptoms consistent with COVID, if you think you may have been exposed, if you are called by AHS regarding a potential exposure or if you feel you should be tested for COVID.

A note about privacy

In Alberta, privacy laws protect the locations and personal information of individuals who have tested positive for COVID-19. As part of a health sciences faculty, we have an obligation to fully understand and implement the protection of health information for our patients but also for our colleagues. Therefore, I urge you to respect the rights, health and safety of fellow community members by not engaging in discussion or speculation of private health information   . If you are not sure if you should be concerned or not, please contact the IPC team at dentIPC@ualberta.ca

It is important to be aware of U of A / School of Dentistry COVID-19 sick protocols yourself, should you ever be concerned. If you are unsure if you should be concerned or not, please contact the IPC team at dentIPC@ualberta.ca.

I understand that this is a time of great uncertainty. Every day on our campuses, community members are having to shift their usual routines to accommodate the protocols we have in place to keep our community safe  It’s not easy, but we can all be reassured by the patience, understanding, and dedication of our community in following the daily safety measures that keep us all safe, and our on-campus activities ongoing.

If we stick to what we know and have been doing this past year, we can weather this storm together.

Have a great weekend!

Have IPC Questions, Concerns or Positive Comments? Email dentIPC@ualberta.ca.

Sincerely,
Dr. Khaled Altabtbaei, IPC Officer
Ronna Richardson-Lozano, IPC Coordinator