Students at McGill concerned over handling of reporting COVID-19 cases

MONTREAL (CityNews) – McGill students are alleging the Montreal university isn’t fully reporting its COVID-19 cases on campus.

McGill’s COVID-19 case tracker says there are 13 COVID cases reported on the campuses in the last week, but some say the number is underreported after finding out about outbreaks on social media.

Students that CityNews spoke with said they learnied of outbreaks through Facebook and they’re calling on McGill to be more transparent and change their current policy by implementing a vaccine mandate like many other Canadian universities.

“There had been COVID positive students who had gone to classes, who had gone to social events and we were not informed,” said Emma Sitland, third-year McGill law student.

“It kind of created a panic within the school when we realize the McGill administration isn’t telling us when we’re in contact with COVID positive cases,” added Sitland.

#WATCH: “This kind of created a panic within the school,” says McGill Law student Emma Sitland, of an alleged outbreak within the Faculty and the university failing to notify students. She says there has been flaws with McGill’s COVID case reporting system. @CityNewsMTL pic.twitter.com/rrBS68f7aV

— Alyssia (@rubertuccinews) September 24, 2021

“The faculty of law students organization tried to organize their own case reporting system but then that got shut down because the McGill admin body told them they can’t do that and its against public health guidelines, even though students tried to take matters into their own hands. It’s just been difficult to know exactly what’s going on,” said Kimberly Ren, second-year McGill law student.

#WATCH: “Even though students were trying to take matters into their own hands, it’s just been difficult,” says McGill student Kimberly Ren, on students who created COVID reporting systems that got shut down by the university. She says they are just trying to know the situation. pic.twitter.com/YHBr3ky56T

— Alyssia (@rubertuccinews) September 24, 2021

“That’s just really upsetting, because students need all the information to make sure that they’re not putting themselves or putting others at risk after they’d been in a potentially dangerous situation,” said Claire Downie, VP of university affairs and Students’ Society of McGill University.

#WATCH: “@SSMUExternal has been protesting for better COVID safety and accommodations for well over a month,” says Claire Downie of the Students’ Society of @mcgillu. She and other students allege McGill isn’t fully reporting COVID cases on campus. @CityNewsMTL pic.twitter.com/PBWv0VN2kD

— Alyssia (@rubertuccinews) September 24, 2021

Students say the flaws are a lack of contact tracing and the fact that the students have to self-report cases.

“Obviously there’s students who test positive and don’t get around to doing that,” said Downie.

“The school hasn’t been very open with how the procedures work and they’re only telling us after students are begging them too,” said Ren.

CityNews reached out to McGill University. The university said it is working was working with public health officials, and is looking at applying policies and safety measures to protect staff and students.

“With the return to campus for the fall semester, vaccinations are a critical part of that strategy. As it stands, over 85 per cent of the McGill community is fully vaccinated, according to latest numbers from the Ministère de la Santé et des Services Sociaux and the Ministère de l’Enseignement supérieur,” said the university in a statement.

“Students and staff are required to call 514-398-3000 to report if they have symptoms of COVID-19 or have tested positive and have been on campus in the 48 hours before symptoms started, or if they did not develop symptoms, in the 48 hours before they took their test. Everyone coming to campus must follow the general health guidelines to ensure the health and safety of our community and prevent the spread of COVID-19.

“Our COVID-19 case tracker reflects the current status of confirmed COVID-19 cases reported to McGill. The Case Management Group has received no reports of a group of people with symptoms or who have tested positive in the Faculty of Law at this time,” the added statement.

Despite the university saying it plans on adapting health measures, students say it’s not enough and are demanding the university make more accommodations for remote learning and require those coming to school to have two doses of the vaccine.

“Until an email that we got two days ago, McGill students were not being informed when someone in their classroom that they could’ve sat beside had COVID, so they changed that policy but even now it’s only if someone reported they been in the classroom 48 hours which as we know is not sufficient,” said Sitland.

“This is supposed to be a top university but how can they not implement basic public health measures?”

“The vaccine mandate works. At U of T, they have four times the student population that we have at McGill. They have a vaccine mandate, they implemented that months ago so people were prepared and they’ve had zero cases on campus,” explained Ren.

McGill University added health measures will be in place throughout the Fall semester.

“McGill’s plan for the Fall involves several layers of protection, including exclusion of symptomatic individuals, procedural mask requirements, distancing in non-classroom environments, contact tracing, optimizing ventilation and other means. Accommodations are available for vulnerable students and employees with appropriate medical documentation.”

The university added only the library will require a vaccine passport in October.