Two Niagara public schools confirm COVID-19 cases
Two District School Board of Niagara schools reported new COVID-19 cases Sunday evening.
Board communications officer Carolyn LoConte issued two reports indicating an individual at Port Weller Public School and someone at Grimsby Secondary had tested positive for the virus.
As is usual with the Niagara boards, the media releases did not indicate whether the new cases involved students or staff at the schools.
“Custodians will complete a thorough cleaning of the school this evening,” said the release from LoConte.
“A public health inspector and a public health nurse from (Niagara Region Public Health) will visit the school to complete a comprehensive assessment,” he added.
LoConte said preventive COVID-19 practices both schools have been following since the beginning of school will continue.
“Wearing PPE, physical distancing, hand hygiene and doing daily health screening will continue,” said LoConte.
The two new cases brings to 14 the number of cases reported at Niagara schools by three boards in the past 14 days.
Adatabase, maintained by the provincial government, lists 12 cases reported within the past two weeks. The provincial database reports whether the cases involve students or staff.
The database, which is updated every weekday at 10:30 a.m., tends to lag a bit behind the boards in reporting new cases.
Information listed on the database Monday indicated one student at each of Dalewood Public and Eden Secondary in St. Catharines and Park Public in Grimsby have tested positive in the past 14 days.
One staff member at Valley Way Public in Niagara Falls has also tested positive.
The database lists six cases from Niagara Catholic District School Board reported in the past 14 days. These include single student cases at Saint Michael Catholic High School in Niagara Falls, Blessed Trinity Secondary in Grimsby and Holy Cross Secondary in St. Catharines.
There is one student case each at the Catholic board’s Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Elementary School in Niagara Falls and one staff case reported at St. Alfred Catholic Elementary in St. Catharines.
Le Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir, the French Catholic board, is reporting two student cases at ÉÉC NotreDame-de-la-Jeunesse, said the database.
One case at a daycare has been reported in Niagara, and involves a child at Branscombe Early Learning and Family Centre in Niagara Falls.