Local health officials have "some concern" about a small Guelph elementary school that has 18 active COVID cases and two declared outbreaks.
The schools in question is École élémentaire Catholique Saint-René-Goupil, a small French, Catholic elementary school on Scottsdale Drive.
By comparison, the combined number of cases in the 98 schools of the Upper Grand and Wellington Catholic school boards was 15 as of Friday.
“We’re working directly with the school,” said Danny Williamson, spokesperson for Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health, explaining officials conducted an infection prevention and control review there Thursday to “make sure all the pieces are in place,” like masking and physical distancing requirements, as well as proper cleaning practices. “We never want to see cases in a school.”
St. René has 17 active cases among students, with one more case confirmed at the staff level.
WDG Public Health declared an outbreak there on Sept. 15, with seven associated cases – making it tied for the largest reported outbreak in the region since the pandemic began.
A second outbreak was declared on Sept. 19. That one has four associated cases.
The staff case is not linked to either outbreak.
“The school and board administration continue to work closely with Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health (WDGPH) in order to understand the reasons for which there continues to be cases reported throughout other classes, even when the class where the first case originated has been closed since September 13th,” said Mikale-Andrée Joly, spokesperson Mon Avenir Conseil Scolaire Catholique school board, in an email.
“At this point WDGPH maintains that transmission has not occurred at the school but has established that it has happened at home. Siblings of students from the first class closed are catching COVID-19 at home.”
“Once these siblings are reported sick, WDGPH asks that their classes be closed as well.”
Community behaviours and vaccinations go a long way to protecting school-aged children, Williamson added.
“Obviously there’s some concern there,” he said of St. René school.
“The reality is school cases don’t come from nowhere,” Williamson continued, encouraging people in the community to get vaccinated in an effort to protect those who are too young to do it themselves, along with masking and physical distancing. “There are tens of thousands of kids under 12 in this region and they can’t be vaccinated yet.”
Asked at what point public health would consider closing a school, Williamson said that's a "last resort" option.
"To close a school we would need to have evidence that transmission cannot be control through the normal process of dismissing individuals cohorts," he said, noting two classroom cohorts are slated to return to the school Friday, with others following suit next week.
