Ajax High Schools closed after COVID-19 outbreak

A second school in Durham has closed its doors to in-class learning after a COVID-19 outbreak was declared at Ajax High School.

The outbreak affected eight students and closed five classrooms before Durham’s Health Department declared it a facility-wide outbreak.

EE Corpus Christi in Oshawa is still closed after an outbreak that spread to more than twenty students was declared November 21. There are still nine students at the French-language school with cases not yet resolved.

Ajax High Principal Eleanor McIntosh told parents in a letter that the school would be closed a minimum of two weeks and that the earliest students will be able to return to in-person classes is January 3 – after the winter break.

McIntosh said the Health Department is “strongly recommending” that all staff and students seek testing for COVID-19.

“During the time that our school will be closed to in-person learning, classes will be taking place virtually. This will be similar to when schools were closed last school year and that students should be logging into their online classroom every day,” McIntosh said. “We will be mindful of varying family situations and your child’s teacher will be contacting your child’s class to share with you the plan for learning.”

Students will also have to wait until Friday to learn how they may retrieve belongings left behind at the school.

The news of the closure comes on a day when new cases of the virus nearly doubled Wednesday with 77 new cases reported in the region.