Schools outpacing last year’s COVID-19 case counts
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/10/2021 (1799 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The beginning of the 2021-22 school year has been much busier in terms of COVID-19 cases compared to the same point last year.
The province’s online list of COVID-19 cases linked to schools shows there were only two cases at this time last year compared to 16 this year in Brandon, with several rural schools facing cases as well.
While the Brandon School Division has sent out several notices regarding COVID-19 exposures at its school, the division and public health do not alert parents or the public to all cases.
As of Sunday — the day with the latest available data at press time — the following BSD schools have had confirmed cases this year: Riverheights School (two cases), Vincent Massey High School (two cases), École O’Kelly (one case), Betty Gibson School (four cases), École New Era (one case), Crocus Plains Regional Secondary School (one case), Kirkcaldy Heights School (one case), Linden Lanes School (one case), King George School (two cases), and St. Augustine School (one case).
Additionally, Christian Heritage School — which is located in Brandon but not a BSD member — has seen 14 cases. That prompted Manitoba Health to declare a rare outbreak at a school, though it has since been declared over.
At least in Brandon, the number of cases this early in the school year is much higher than at the same point in time last year.
The first case BSD reported in the 2020-21 school year was a single case at École New Era on Sept. 12. Meadows School had the second case of the year announced on Sept. 20. The third came on Oct. 10, when a case at École secondaire Neelin High School was reported.
From the beginning of the school year to Oct. 10 in 2020-21, there were just three cases in the division. This year, there have been 16, as well as 14 cases from the outbreak at Christian Heritage School, making it 30 cases so far this school year.
Some of the early letters sent home to parents in Brandon state there was “at least” one case, meaning it’s possible the actual case counts could have been higher.
At Miniota School, there were five cases of COVID-19 as of Oct. 5 in students as well as another case found in a bus driver.
Because of the number of cases, the Park West School Division announced on Oct. 6 it was moving to remote classes for Kindergarten to Grade 8 students until Oct. 16 and returning to in-person classes on Oct. 18.
In the Mountain View School Division, which is located mostly to the north of Riding Mountain National Park, there have been nine total cases of COVID-19 reported since the school year began, according to the division’s website.
Six of those cases have been linked to Roblin Elementary School, two cases linked to Goose Lake High School, and one case linked to Henderson Elementary school.
Though the cases are not listed on the website for the Pine Creek School Division or that of its individual school, the province’s online school cases map shows three cases at Gladstone Elementary, one case at Austin Christian Academy, one case at Austin Elementary, and two cases at MacGregor Elementary in the two weeks prior to Oct. 5.
The province’s list of school cases states that from Sept. 7 through Oct. 5, there were 286 total cases connected to schools across Manitoba, of which 247 cases were found in students and 39 cases found in staff. A total of 115 schools in the province have had one or more cases so far.
One major difference between this year and last year, though, is that in the 13 months since the 2020-21 school year started, vaccines for COVID-19 have not just been available for teachers and school staff but for kids aged 12 and older.
The principal of Christian Heritage School, who said he contracted COVID-19 during the outbreak along with three of his children, credited having only minor symptoms from the virus to the fact that he had been double-vaccinated.
Another big change for schools could come soon as Pfizer is expected to submit its mRNA COVID-19 vaccine for approval for use in children as young as five sometime this month.
» cslark@brandonsun.com
» Twitter: @ColinSlark