Grade 11 and 12 Virden Collegiate students and families self-isolating after COVID-19 outbreak

Two grades at a school in southwestern Manitoba along with their families are self-isolating after a COVID-19 outbreak.

Mark Keown, principal of Virden Collegiate Institute, said 145 students in grades 11 and 12 at the school have been isolating with their families since last Thursday.

In a letter sent to families, Keown said three students and one staff member have tested positive so far, with one case identified as a variant of concern.

A pop-up testing clinic for contacts is being held at the school on Sunday. Keown says if students who have been considered close contacts record a negative test, then their families will no longer have to self-isolate.

“It’s been tough on the community for sure, but we’re thankful they’re bringing the pop-up test site to town and enabling all our kids to go get that test,” Keown said.

“Hopefully they come back in a negative fashion which will allow those families to start to work their way back towards normalcy.”

Keown says these are the first cases at the school since the pandemic.

“We’re still pretty on edge, because we’re still waiting for some results back on tests from lots of people within the community,” Keown said.

The entire Grade 9-12 school has been remote learning and will do so until April 22.

According to Data MB (gov.mb.ca), there have been 152 total cases at Manitoba schools in the last two weeks with 39 of those being variant of concern cases.

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