Hamilton school outbreak declared 1 day before students return to class

Hamilton's first outbreak for the 2021-2022 school year has been declared one day before the year formally starts for students.

Two staff members at St. James the Apostle Catholic Elementary School tested positive for the virus according to the city's public health dashboard.

Hamilton's Catholic school board wrote in a statement online that the two employees were last in school on Sept. 2 and the cases are linked. A workplace outbreak may be declared when two or more confirmed cases are connected and "it is likely that the infection was spread in the workplace," according to the city. 

The board said both staff members won't return to the site until public health clears them.

"The identity of the individuals will not be released out of privacy considerations," reads the school message from principal Elena Minicucci.

"Students and staff should attend school, unless they have been directed otherwise by [public health], and to screen daily for COVID-19 symptoms on the provincial COVID-19 school screening website."

Staff in the Catholic and public school boards must report their vaccination status and, if unvaccinated, do regular testing and receive training.

Public health will do 'everything' to avoid move to remote learning

The city's medical officer of health, Dr. Elizabeth Richardson, said school outbreaks are inevitable because school cases reflect what is happening in the broader community.

"That said, we are doing everything we can with the school boards, taking the lead in keeping our kids in schools rather than come out of the school setting," she said in a media briefing on Tuesday afternoon.

"You've heard from [Ontario's] chief medical officer of health, Kieran Moore, that he doesn't see a situation in which we're actually going to have to close down schools in terms of a full school board-wide closure."

She said while some classes may be dismissed or there could be a short school-wide closure depending on the circumstances, Richardson said public health will do "everything that we can" to ensure a board-wide move to remote learning doesn't happen again like last year.

Hamilton's Catholic school board has a total of five active cases, including the outbreak.

One St. Gabriel Catholic Elementary School staff member tested positive and was last in the building on Sept. 2, but the Catholic board says no students were affected.

One St. Thomas More Catholic Secondary School student who was in the school tested positive for the virus on Sept. 1, as did a Bishop Tonnos Catholic Secondary School student, who was also on site, on Aug. 31.

The public school board had a Sherwood Secondary School staff member and a Lake Avenue Elementary School staff member test positive for COVID-19 according to separate online posts on Sept. 4 but no students or staff were listed as close contacts for either case.