Public Health is defending its decision not to publicly report potential public exposure to COVID-19 at a Saint John church.
RiverCross Church informed its congregation this week that two people who attended services on March 28 later tested positive for the virus.
In a letter, pastoral staff said they were made aware of the first case on April 3 involving an adult who attended Sunday worship.
“While the risk was presented to us as low, we felt it wise to move to an online service on Easter Sunday,” said the letter.
Two days later, the church was informed that a child from the same family who attended the RiverKids program the same day had also tested positive.
The church said it informed all families who had children in the program. It also passed on a document from Public Health asking them to self-monitor for symptoms until midnight April 11th “and Public Health’s instructions that they did not have to isolate.”
But according to the church, that advice from Public Health changed when further testing revealed the cases involved a COVID-19 variant.
“Because the virus is different, the advice from Public Health on how to respond is different,” said the letter. “Therefore, all 209 of you who attended worship on March 28th were (or will be) required to isolate until midnight Sunday April 11th and being asked to get a Covid 19 test.”
When contacted by our newsroom, senior pastor Rob Nylen confirmed the contents of the letter which was sent to congregation members.
The Department of Health said it follows a standard process when addressing instances where the public may have been exposed to a case of COVID-19.
Spokesperson Bruce Macfarlane said in cases where record-keeping is able to identify anyone who may have been exposed, officials contact these individuals directly and do not issue a separate announcement.
“In cases where officials cannot be certain of exactly who may have been exposed to the virus in a given location, Public Health issues an announcement to alert those who could have been affected and provides instructions,” Macfarlane wrote in an email.
Macfarlane pointed to the announcement earlier this week of a potential public exposure at the YMCA of Greater Saint John as an example.
