Ottawa parent creates school COVID-19 tracker

Katya Duhamel working on the COVID tracker website. (Supplied)

An Ottawa parent concerned with a lack of COVID-19 data in school has created a website to track cases.

Katya Duhamel is the creator of the Ottawa Covid Tracker. It’s  an online tool for parents to self-report COVID-19 symptoms and cases in schools.

“I created it because I really feel that it’s crucial to be able to know if you child has been directly impacted or affected,” she tells CTV News Ottawa.

The mother of a six year-old has a background in data and I.T. and says she created the tracker as a way of sharing information,

“I created a simple tool that parents, educators, guardians can use to go and report if they have a suspected or positive case of COVID.”

The online tool is accessible to anyone here.

Duhamel says that no personal information is submitted, not even the teacher’s name. Parents enter the school, class, cohort, last day at the school attended, and whether the case is suspected or confirmed.

According to the website’s description, “Given that there is no longer public reporting, and that testing capacity is very limited through assessment centers, we have created this website as a temporary way for parents, schools and daycares to share information privately about Covid cases in the community.”

The province is no longer publishing information on COVID-19 in schools, but is sharing data on absences online, whether they are related to COVID-19 or not.

The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board will launch a voluntary COVID-19 disclosure process for parents, students and staff later this month.

The Ottawa Catholic School Board says it will still notify families of a positive COVID-19 case in their schools, should they learn of them.

In a letter to families, the OCSB said that, starting Wednesday, if the school becomes aware of a positive COVID-19 test result via a rapid antigen or PCR test, families would be notified.