School dismissals in September already double all of last year in Windsor-Essex

Desks are spread out at St. Joseph Catholic Elementary School in Amherstburg, Ont. on Thursday, Aug. 6, 2020. (Rich Garton / CTV Windsor)

Windsor, Ont. -

The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit is concerned with the amount of students and staff impacted by school dismissals from COVID-19 exposures.

“There are more cohorts being dismissed in this academic year, than were dismissed in the entire academic year last year,” says Dr. Shanker Nesathurai, acting medical officer of health.

According to data released Wednesday, 104 cohorts have been dismissed and 17 schools have been in an outbreak this month alone.

School COVID-19 tracker: Map of cases in Windsor-Essex for 2021-22 school year

Last year, just 50 cohorts were dismissed and eight schools were in outbreak.

“The goal, ultimately is to break the chain of transmission, from young person to their mom or dad and from their mom or dad to their grandmother or grandfather,” says Nesathurai.

He was also asked by the media Wednesday when extra-curricular activities might resume in local schools.

The WECHU had previously asked school boards to pause sports and clubs at the start of the school year, to keep transmission levels low.

Nesathurai would not say when they will be reversing that directive, but says the key to any restrictions being eased is to get the vaccination rate higher amongst younger residents.

“We wanna somehow effectuate a process so that young people don’t transmit to older people and then ultimately people who are particularly vulnerable,” says Nesathurai.

Here is the list of active school outbreaks, according to WECHU:

• St. Andre French Immersion Catholic School Elementary
• J. A. McWilliam Public School Elementary
• Ford City Public School Elementary
• Al-Hijra Academy Elementary
• St. Joseph’s Catholic High School Secondary