THE BC LIberals said on Wednesday that following last week’s revelation that the NDP government has been hiding important COVID-19 data from the public, a new leak of Fraser Health data has shown that COVID-19 is having a significant impact on B.C. schools, despite NDP claims that schools are safe.

“For the second time in less than a week, the government has been caught withholding information on COVID-19 transmission from British Columbians, and this time it concerns the safety of children,” said Renee Merrifield, BC Liberal Health Critic. “The school data that has been leaked is information the media, parents, teachers, and the Official Opposition have been requesting for months, only to be told that it doesn’t exist. Today, we see that the information very much does exist, the NDP just had no intention of sharing it.”

The leaked report was an analysis of data collected in schools within Fraser Health between January 1 and March 7 of this year, and it revealed that 52.5 per cent of transmission of the virus that took place in schools was between students.

“Not only is this data leak just another example of the NDP withholding valuable information from British Columbians, but it is also a direct contradiction of what the government has been telling teachers and parents,” said Jackie Tegart, BC Liberal Education Critic. “For months people have been told that schools are safe, and that children don’t transmit the virus, but this new information tells a different story. Particularly in hotspots like Surrey, people should have been given this data months ago so that they could make informed decisions for the safety of their families, instead, the NDP decided to leave people in the dark.”