A decision on whether students in the Fort Frances area return to their classrooms is expected this week.
Students, who attend schools between Mine Centre and Stratton, have been learning remotely since the start of this year.
Northwestern Health Unit’s Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Kit Young Hoon, says whether it needs to be extended is to be determined.
“We will review all the data, look at what the province is doing with their schools. We’re going to try and align our policy similar to what the province has done, make a decision then on whether Fort Frances schools can go back to in-person learning or whether they need to continue virtual learning,” says Dr. Young Hoon.
Young Hoon says concern with the number and types of cases in the Fort Frances area prompted the decision to have students learn remotely.
Meantime, the Health Unit is looking at how its reports on new COVID-19 cases.
It currently identifies the location of cases by one of four geographic areas. One of those area covers the entire Rainy River district.
Young Hoon says future reporting may be done based on smaller health hubs of which there are four in the Rainy River district.
“Because we’re getting an increase in cases, it’s now harder to match cases with the provincial information. So we’re going to be releasing at least weekly if not more often as cases increase by the health hub,” says Young Hoon.
At the start of the pandemic, the Health Unit did report case locations based on their health hub.
That changed within a matter of weeks.
Young Hoon says there was concern that with the data provided by the province, the privacy of a person in the district with COVID-19 could be compromised.
Young Hoon says a privacy lawyer was consulted prior to the change in direction.
