Waterloo public school parents to get daily reports about COVID-19 cases

As more and more Ontarians catch COVID-19, the Waterloo Region District School Board says it will soon be providing parents with more information about the situation.

The board says caregivers of children will begin receiving daily reports from their school’s principals which will show the number of COVID-19 cases reported as well as the classes which have been affected.

It says that if a COVID-19 case is reported in a child’s class, that kid can still attend school.

The reports will not identify any staff or students.

If a caregiver does not receive a report on a particular day, that means there were no new cases reported at their child’s school.

A spokesperson for the board told Global News that this is a local initiative that is not being implemented at the behest of the province.

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The board is also warning parents that there is the possibility that classrooms or entire schools may be forced to close going forward.

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“We are facing increased staffing challenges due to the rising number of COVID-19 cases, and continue to implement a number of strategies to ensure schools stay open for learning,” the letter from the board read.

“We have been very fortunate that to date, no WRDSB schools have been closed due to staff shortages.”

The board says parents will receive 24-hours notice through School-Day if there is a closure. The board also says closures could last as long as five days.

There are currently 76 public schools from Waterloo Region on the province’s website which shows absence rates at Ontario schools.

Waterloo-Oxford District Secondary School in Baden has the highest total at 25.9 per cent, while Rosemount Grand River in Kitchener is second at 24.6 per cent.

Earlier this week, the director of Ontario’s COVID-19 Science Advisory Table told Global News that he believes there are more than 100,000 new cases across the province on a daily basis.

“Based on what we’re seeing right now, with today’s analysis showing that we reached the levels (of) the last Omicron peak in wastewater, we need to assume … we have roughly 100,000 to 120,000 infections per day,” he told Global News.

He said that he believes the province is reporting less than five per cent of the actual total of new cases.