We are just over one month into the new school year, and already Chatham-Kent schools have had as many outbreaks of COVID-19 as all of last year.
However, local education and health officials are trying to reassure parents that schools are safe.
Medical Officer Dr. David Colby says it all comes down to the hyper-transmissible Delta variant.
“That is really the whole reason for what we’re seeing, but there’s always a silver lining, or at least a more optimistic way of looking at things. The cohorting system is working very well. We really haven’t seen a lot of cases, but I will admit a lot of cohorts have been isolated.”
So far this semester, outbreaks have been declared at seven schools within Chatham-Kent, six of which were still active on Thursday, October 6th.
On Friday morning, 7 Chatham-Kent schools within the Lambton Kent District School Board are reporting at least one student or staff case of COVID-19. At the St Clair Catholic District School Board, there are five schools in Chatham-Kent with at least one case.
While isolation of cohorts can be hard on families, Dr. Colby insists it’s the best way to reduce transmission.
“Our aim here is to make sure that schools are not the vehicle for people to acquire COVID, and that requires an aggressive isolation approach, which is very inconvenient for everyone, but the cost of loosening up on that would be to see more cases transmitted in our schools.”
Officials with both the Lambton Kent and St Clair Catholic boards say overall, the percentage of schools affected remains low.
“Of our 62 schools, about 45 of them have no cases, about 6 of them have one case,” John Howitt, Director of Education with the LKDSB says. “Yes, we do have some outbreaks in some isolated areas, they’re not massive outbreaks into the double digits, and given the populations in those schools that’s really good news.”
Scott Johnson with the St Clair District School Board says vaccination makes a huge difference for those 12 and older.
“One of the biggest difference differences for us in secondary (school) in particular is for students who are vaccinated, when we have a case we have a great privilege this year that many of our students are able to return to school the next day so their disruption to school is significantly different than last year.”
Johnson says having greater access to technology is making the transition between face-to-face and remote learning easier, allowing classes to pivot more quickly.
