14 new confirmed COVID-19 cases, 2 outbreak concerns in Hamilton schools: Sept. 28 update

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Published September 28, 2021 at 10:36 pm

Hamilton elementary schools reported a dozen COVID-19 cases across the two school boards on Tuesday (Sept. 28), several of which appear to be in cluster of Stoney Creek schools.

Each board listed either a student case or impacted classrooms that are linked with outbreaks. Neither appears on the City of Hamilton’s active outbreak list,  which is typically updated early in the day.

Five schools that reported at least one case on Tuesday are along a stretch of Hwy. 8 in Stoney Creek:

On the public board side, the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board is dislosing 10 new cases across eight elementary schools. The more notable listings include:

  • A pair of student cases at Lake Avenue PS in Stoney Creek.Lake Avenue is less than 8 km away from both St. Martin of Tours (outbreak declared: Sept. 26) and Immaculate Heart of Mary (declared Sept. 23).
  • A student case at Bellmoore Public School in Binbrook is listed as connected to an outbreak that has yet to appear on the city list.Bellmoore is about 2.0 km away from École Élémentaire Michaëlle Jean, which has its first confirmed case of the school year.
  • Huntington Park School, which is on the east Mountain, also reported two student cases.

The Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board (HWCDSB) listed four new cases on Tueseday: two in elementary schools and two in high schools.

  • A new case was discovered at St. John Henry Newman, a Stoney Creek high school. Newman is less than 1 km from St. Martin of Tours and is also close to Lake Avenue PS.
  • St. Patrick, an elementary school in the Landsdale neighbourhood, is listed as having three “impacted” classrooms. It is 900 km away from Cathedral High School, which had two new cases reported on Monday.
  • Bishop Tonnos, an Ancaster high school with a declared outbreak, has one new case. Another new case was reported at Immaculate Conception, an elementary school that is about 4.3 km away along Garner Road West.

The actual case count in schools is likely higher than reported.

In most instances, a confirmed case occurs after a student or staff member shows symptoms of COVID-19 during a daily screening. Ontario’s school reopening plan does not fund asymptomatic testing or rapid antigen testing, even though many infected children who spread the Delta variant will do so before they even show symptoms, if they even do at all. The extreme health outcomes from COVID-19 are typically less severe in young children.

 

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