Province issues guidance as more schools head online

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This article was published 26/04/2021 (1635 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Although the province intends to keep schools open during the pandemic’s third wave, several Manitoba schools have already decided to switch to remote learning because higher numbers of students and staff are isolating at home.

Provincial public health officials said Monday, as they have said consistently throughout the pandemic, that COVID-19 is not spreading significantly within schools. But transmission data alone doesn’t reflect the large numbers of students, staff, and their families who have to stay home because they’ve been identified as close contacts.

Infection rates among children and teens are rising, and it has become more common for whole classes to be sent home as close contacts when one student tests positive. Several school division representatives who spoke to the Free Press said classrooms have increasingly moved to remote learning in recent weeks.

The number of schools taking matters into their own hands prompted the provincial education department to send out instructions Monday to school divisions considering remote learning. Superintendents are being directed to consult with public-health officials before closing schools and to consider switching to remote learning for only a day or two, to allow for public-health consultation about how long remote learning will be necessary.

The situation was “untenable” at a St. Vital elementary school that is now closed for at least two weeks, said Louis Riel School Division superintendent Christian Michalik.

As of Monday, there were 22 confirmed cases among students and staff at École Marie-Anne Gaboury. The kindergarten to Grade 8 school had its first positive case on April 15. Many more students and staff — more than 26 per cent of the school population — were required to self-isolate under Manitoba’s public-health orders, which created more than 20 vacancies the school division couldn’t fill. Other parents were keeping their children home as a precaution, and the number of students showing up to school was dwindling. By last Friday, almost half of the student population was absent, and the division did consult public health before going fully remote.

“The situation, like in this case, just becomes untenable, because you’ve got so many folks home, monitoring for symptoms, getting tested,” Michalik said. “We also are concerned about the virus getting into the school and spreading in the school.”

The superintendent said he’s not advocating for all schools to close, but he is calling for clarity on how to reduce the spread of the virus in the community. Everyone needs to follow the public-health restrictions to keep schools safe, he said.

“As this third wave hits us in the city and province, schools aren’t immune to the situation, and if we’re not able to get a handle on it, it’s going to get more complicated for us to keep schools open,” Michalik said.

At least seven other Manitoba schools have transitioned all students to remote learning within the past three weeks. In Winnipeg, Holy Cross School and St. Norbert Immersion are doing remote learning only. Last week, three schools in Gimli made the switch, as did schools in Boissevain and Pilot Mound earlier this month.

The Free Press requested data from the province on the number of students and staff who’ve been required to self-isolate in Manitoba, but those numbers weren’t available Monday. The most recent provincial figures on school case counts are out of date. There were three outbreaks declared in schools two weeks ago, and 244 cases within schools as of April 20.

Chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin said youth are contracting the virus at sleepovers, house parties and other after-school activities. He said contact tracers are still not seeing the virus spread within schools, but they do expect to see larger numbers of students self-isolating as close contacts.

Emphasizing the plan for now is to keep schools open, Roussin thanked teachers for their work during a news conference Monday.

“Having the schools in session during most of this second and third wave has kept at least some semblance of normalcy for our youth and has a tremendous impact on their physical and mental health, so thanks for all of your work on this.”

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay