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Windsor-Essex students will have to wait to resume extracurricular activities.
Before the start of the new school year, the local health unit issued a recommendation that all extracurriculars be delayed until at least October to help curb the spread of COVID-19.
Acting Medical Officer of Health Dr Shanker Nesathurai said the directive has now been extended indefinitely while the health unit waits for the number of positive cases to decline.
He said it is difficult to say when the recommendation could be lifted.
“We are constantly evaluating the data,” he says. “It’s very difficult to predict the future. So I think for now, based on our current experience, we maintain the recommendation to suspend extracurricular activities.”
Dr Nesathurai says keeping children in class is the number one priority.
“The number one goal in my mind, I think from a public health perspective, is to try to keep schools open for education,” Dr. Nesathurai said. “As the burden of disease and the burden of disease decrease in the school community, we can reassess the level of restrictions that might be recommended. “
He says more than 200 cohorts have already been laid off due to confirmed cases.
“We laid off more cohorts in that first month or five weeks of school than we did last year,” he says. “So given all of this, I think we need to maintain a level of vigilance to try to prevent the transmission of COVID in schools and try to minimize the risk of outbreaks in schools.”
Dr Nesathurai adds that Windsor-Essex continues to have one of the lowest vaccination rates among young people in the province.
The delay includes sports, clubs and school trips at the elementary and secondary levels.
– with files from Rob Hindi from AM800
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