The London District Catholic School Board’s St. Thomas Aquinas Secondary School is the latest school in London, Ont., to have a COVID-19 outbreak as declared by the local health unit.
Earlier this week, the health unit declared outbreaks at four local schools.
The Middlesex-London Health Unit is reporting two active cases at St. Thomas Aquinas as of Friday.
The announcement does not mean the school is closing. The health unit says “only staff and students in classrooms identified as having had close contact with the cases will be excluded from attending school.”
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“It’s through following up with cases that we learn more about the individuals involved and their close contacts. We start to see links emerge that help us understand how this virus is passed from person to person,” said associate medical officer of health Dr. Alex Summers.
“It’s our conclusion that COVID-19 was passed from one case to another at St. Thomas Aquinas. However, because we’ve already identified and excluded their close contacts at the school, there is no need for further action by staff or students, other than to monitor themselves for the development of symptoms.”
An outbreak is declared when there are two or more laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 within the school community where at least one case “could have reasonably acquired their infection at school.”
On Wednesday, the health unit announced it had declared outbreaks at four schools in London: Westminster Secondary School, Ashley Oaks Public School, Sir Arthur Currie Public School, and Mother Teresa Catholic Secondary.
Another outbreak declared Nov. 30 at St. Marguerite D’Youville Secondary School also remains active.
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