Advertisement

Village of Westport, Ont., adds pre-emptive measures after school COVID-19 outbreak

Click to play video: 'Village of Westport north of KIngston taking additional covid measures after school outbreak'
Village of Westport north of KIngston taking additional covid measures after school outbreak
WATCH: Westport, a village north of Kingston adds additional COVID-19 measures after school outbreak. – Dec 8, 2020

While the Leeds-Grenville-Lanark district remains in the green “prevent” level of the province’s COVID-19 framework, one community north of Kingston is taking more steps to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Westport has added some pre-emptive measures after a school in the village declared an outbreak.

“We have been COVID-free in the village since March, and with the outbreak in one of the schools, we have done the things that we feel we need to do,” said Robin Jones, Westport’s mayor.

Click to play video: 'Approval, distribution for Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in Canada imminent'
Approval, distribution for Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in Canada imminent

To prevent people from gathering, as of now the town hall is closed, while the library and the community centre are also off-limits.

Story continues below advertisement

The move comes after an outbreak of the novel coronavirus was recently declared at St. Edward Catholic School in the village.

Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.

Get daily National news

Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.
By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

The Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario has said there are over five cases at the school, but haven’t given an exact number.

Jones says the measures make sense.

“We’ve closed those three building for 14 days,” Jones said. “We’ll probably know more about how widely spread the virus is within that period of time.

“So that either means we can open them up on the 21st or re-assess and leave them closed.”

Click to play video: 'Westport boy raising money for clean water in developing nations'
Westport boy raising money for clean water in developing nations

 

Story continues below advertisement

There was also a case at Rideau Vista School also in the village, however, it remains open. Jones says it’s another case of it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Sponsored content

AdChoices