‘If COVID is in our communities, it’s in our schools’ says premier

Three schools are currently closed in the Halifax area to stop the spread of the virus

CITYnews\ Meghan Groff

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The premier says Nova Scotia is in a good position as it the fourth wave continues, but he does have some concerns.

Tim Houston said the COVID activity in most areas remains low and about 77 per cent of the population is fully vaccinated.

“But community spread continues in Halifax,” he said at a Tuesday briefing. “It’s mainly among those who are not vaccinated.”

“There are clusters around the metro area, it’s not widespread, but it exists,” he added. “It’s no surprise that we’re seeing cases in our schools in communities where there is more COVID activity.”

Three schools are currently closed in the metro area to stop the spread of the virus — Dartmouth South Academy, Joseph Howe Elementary and École Mer et Monde.

Students at a fourth school — Duc d’Anville Elementary — just returned to class Monday after that school was shut down last week.

The province’s chief medical officer of health said about 44 of the 370 public schools in Nova Scotia have had at least one case of COVID-19.

“Of those 44 schools, only 11 have had required increased public health measures, and only four, which is one per cent of our total number of schools in the province, have had to close to prevent further spread,” said Dr. Robert Strang. “So collectively, we’re doing a good job of keeping COVID out of our schools.”

Strang said public health officials decided to close those schools because there had been transmission within them.

“If there’s one case of transmission within a school, we don’t close it down,” he explained. “It’s an ongoing, almost daily assessment of what we’re seeing, and we were seeing patterns of more cases where the likely explanation was exposure within the school.”

He added the priority is keeping kids in classrooms if possible, which is why the shutdowns aren’t being expanded to whole families of schools, just the individual schools where there are issues.

“In families of schools you have elementary schools, junior highs and high schools,” Strang stated. “Most of the schools impacted are elementary schools.”

“Because of vaccination, we don’t have the same issues and there’s much more protection in junior highs and high schools, so right now we’re comfortable taking a school-by-school approach to this.”

The province announced 12 new COVID-19 cases Tuesday, for a current total of 187 active cases.

It also reported a small outbreak at Kentville’s Valley Regional Hospital after three patients in the facility’s non-COVID ward tested positive for the virus.

One of those patients has been transferred to the intensive care unit and more than 50 inpatients, staff, and physicians have been tested.

“We know none of us want to hear about COVID in our hospitals and in our communities, but this is just a reminder that COVID is still very real here in Nova Scotia,” said the executive director of Nova Scotia Health’s Western Zone, Alyson Lamb.

Lamb said every incoming patient is tested, and the first case was detected Friday, followed by two more Monday.

Across the province, 14 people are in hospital with COVID-19, including four in ICU.