Two Oshawa schools close due to COVID outbreaks bringing total to five across the Region

Two more schools, Pierre Elliott Trudeau Public and Hillsdale Public are both closed as of December 15. This brings the total of closed schools to five across the Region.

There are currently 135 cases across 58 Durham schools, 14 of which are suffering active outbreaks.

The following schools are closed; Ajax High School with 3 cases, Bowmanville’s Duke of Cambridge Public with 8 active cases, Oshawa’s Hillsdale Public with 9 cases and P.E. Trudeau Public with five cases, and Pickering’s Father Fenelon Catholic with 13 cases.

In total 14 schools are reporting active outbreaks but remain open; St. Catherine of Siena Catholic, Michaelle Jean Public, McCaskill’s Mills Public, Duke of Cambridge Public, Charles Bowman Public, Maple Ridge Public, Sir William Stephenson Public, Donald A. Wilson Secondary and St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic.

Most of the schools report only one or two cases. William Stephenson has the highest count at four. These outbreaks are worse than last year at this time when no schools were closed.

Schools have reported nearly 597 cases over the previous semester. Over the entire 2020-21 school year Durham school reported 333 cases.

Vaccination rates are of course much higher with 84.9 per cent Durham residents over age 12 fully vaccinated and 77.7 per cent over 5 vaccinated.

Since the rollout of children’s vaccine clinic on November 25, 29.5 per cent of kids over 5 have already received one dose. Meanwhile, 83.9 per cent of youth 12-17 are vaccinated.

The Durham District School Board reports 95 per cent staff attest to being vaccinated as of December 3. Durham Catholic reported a 93 per cent vaccination rate on December 7.