Surrey teacher hospitalized in ICU after contracting COVID-19
A GoFundMe campaign has been launched for a school teacher in the Fraser Health jurisdiction, whose battle with COVID-19 has now landed her in ICU.
According to the campaign, Darlene Lourenco is a music teacher, and her husband is a small business owner.
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“Currently she and her husband are both sick and fighting this awful virus,” reads the campaign description. “They have been through so much as a family already and know grief too well. Her husband owns a small business which has struggled to stay afloat during the pandemic. They have bills and a mortgage to pay and neither of them can work at the moment. They need our help.”
According to the campaign, Darlene “went above and beyond to create online music experiences for the families at home,” when schools transitioned to online learning this past spring. “No one deserves this. Darlene was just doing her job and sharing her love of music with young children. She should not be having to go through this.”
Over the weekend, as well as on Monday, Fraser Health closed a number of schools in the region, due to COVID-19 outbreaks, including the one Darlene worked at.
“Fraser Health made the right decision to close our school to stop further spread of COVID 19,” the campaign reads. “This is a huge win for our community.”
On Monday, the health authority announced that it had made the decision to close a fourth school, after announcing over the weekend that Cambridge Elementary School in Surrey, Jarvis Elementary School in Delta, and Al-Hidayah School in New Westminster are dealing with a number of COVID-19 cases, prompting their closures.
A COVID-19 outbreak was declared at Cambridge Elementary School after seven cases were identified.
“As a precautionary measure to respond to this outbreak, Fraser Health has advised the Surrey School District to close Cambridge Elementary School for a two-week period to break any chains of COVID-19 transmission that may be present at the school,” notes Fraser Health.
Jarvis Elementary and Al-Hidayah School will “functionally close” due to staffing challenges resulting from managing the clusters.
So far, six cases have been identified at Jarvis and eight at Al-Hidayah
On Monday, Fraser Health said another school in the region will temporarily close for two weeks due to COVID-19 cases.
In a statement, Fraser Health says it is “working closely” with Abbotsford Christian School to manage COVID-19 exposure at the middle school. So far, six cases have been identified at the private school.
The school will “functionally close” due to staffing challenges resulting from managing the clusters.