LAKELAND – As active COVID-19 rates vary among the Lakeland region’s general population, there are similarly varying rates of COVID alerts and outbreaks among Lakeland schools.
The County of St. Paul has among the highest rates of active COVID cases with 128 reported on Alberta Health Services (AHS) website of as of Friday.
Currently, there are two St. Paul schools on alert and one that has reached out break status in the area.
AHS has confirmed that between five to nine individuals have tested positive for COVID-19 attended Racette Junior High School while infectious. Glen Avon Protestant School has had between two to four cases confirmed by AHS.
École Elementaire St. Paul is one of the only schools within the Lakeland school divisions to be placed on the province’s COVID outbreak list, meaning 10 or more cases have been confirmed within the school.
According to AHS’s website, “the schools list(ed) only includes outbreaks in schools that have had 10 or more cases who were infectious in school in the past 14 days.”
F.G. Miller Junior Senior High School in Elk Point shows between five and nine cases confirmed in the school, as of Friday but St. Paul Education had confirmed the school was on outbreak as of Oct. 17.
In the City of Cold Lake there are 79 active cases of COVID-19 and four schools on alert.
AHS has confirmed that Cold Lake High School, Cold Lake Middle School and St. Dominic School have had between two and four cases of COVID within the school. Holy Cross Elementary School has had between five to nine cases confirmed by the provincial health organization.
With active COVID cases dropping significantly in the MD of Bonnyville, active cases in schools have similarly decreased.
There are currently 68 active cases of the virus within the MD and only two schools on alert. Both Bonnyville Centralized High School and H. E. Bourgoin Middle School have had between five and nine cases confirmed to be infectious while in school over the last 14 days.
In Lac La Biche County, which has had some of the lowest rates of active cases since spiking in early spring, there were 62 cases of COVID-19 reported as of Friday.
Aurora Middle School, Light of Christ Catholic School and Vera M. Welsh Elementary School have all had between two to four cases of COVID confirmed over the last 14 days.
Nicole Garner, the communications officer for Northern Lights Public Schools, tells Lakeland Today, that the division does use the provincial list to determine alerts or outbreaks statuses before posting on NLPS school’s websites.
She notes that NLPS has been notifying parents of all COVID cases – both the ones that are AHS confirmed and the ones that individuals have disclosed to the school.
“So far, we have not noticed any discrepancies between the provincial list and the number of AHS confirmed cases we have at our schools,” says Garner.
Although, Garner adds that NLPS has been informed of COVID cases that have not been confirmed by AHS. They have also had one case “that AHS said was infectious while at school, that in fact, was not in school on the day (it) was listed, but other than that, our official AHS cases match the alert/outbreak list.”
