THUNDER BAY - The Thunder Bay District has declared an outbreak of COVID-19 at McKellar Park Central Public School after determining additional infections were acquired in the school.
As a result, all students have been sent home and will be taught virtually until the outbreak is declared over, which Lakehead Public Schools superintendent of education A.J. Keene on Thursday said will keep students out of class until at least Feb. 17.
"The situation up until last night was we had classes dismissed as a result of a number of COVID cases all connected to one family, not through transmission at the school," Keene said. "However, last night and today we found there were two additional cases in one of the classrooms that spread from the original case, not connected to that family.
"So under the rules that the health unit follows, they're declaring an outbreak at McKellar Park School."
An outbreak is declared when there are two or more cases of COVID-19 in staff or students linked to a school setting.
Keene said it's unfortunate, but it's better to be safe than sorry.
"It's not a huge number, by any means, even though are a number of cases associated with it, most of them are associated with one family. The school itself is not closed. The child care, Little Lions Daycare, remains open. We have staff that will be working from school. The building has been cleaned and its safe in that regard," Keene said.
"It's not a school closure in the sense that the health unit will close some schools as a result of an outbreak. It's a dismissal of cohorts and it's just a small enough school that it happened that it happens to be all of the cohorts."
The health unit, in a release issued on Thursday, said the two new cases were deemed to have acquired the infection in the school setting,
“Working with the school and school board, TBDHU will continue to monitor and assess the situation until the full risk period has passed," reads the health unit release.
