The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit is shedding more light on the decision to close St. Joseph's Catholic High School.
With approximately 200 students identified as possible contacts of the four confirmed cases of COVID-19, Medical Officer of Health Shanker Nesathurai said the decision was made to declare an outbreak and close the school's doors.
About 800 students attend St. Joseph's.
In addition, he pointed out the vaccination rate among those 12 to 17 and in the community surrounding the school is low.
Medical Officer of Health Doctor Shanker Nesathurai. IPhoto from YouTube update on September 16, 2021)
"We look at a number of factors," said Nesathurai. "The first is to look at the disease burden in the community. Right now, in Windsor-Essex, it has one of the highest levels of disease activity in the province. Looking at the number of cases, the positivity."
Nine per cent of test results are positive for the virus.
"It's my understanding that there are 33,000 young people in schools in the Windsor-Essex health district. There are 170 schools. Our goal still remains to try to contain COVID-19, and our other goal is to try and prevent spread from school to school to school," said Nesathurai.
Across Windsor-Essex, the full vaccination rate for residents aged 12 and up remains stubbornly below 75 per cent at 74.5 per cent.
Dupuis also said the health unit is working to get staff and students at St. Joseph's tested without overwhelming assessment centres at Windsor Regional Hospital and Erie Shores Healthcare.
Meanwhile, the health unit reported another 47 cases of COVID-19 on Thursday morning.
Officials are still investigating how 23 people were infected but said 13 caught the virus in the community. Another ten had close contact with a case officials are already tracking, and one was infected in one of the 22 outbreaks in the region.
There are now 416 active cases in the region, and 261 involve a variant of concern.
The province reported 668 new cases and three deaths connected to the virus on Thursday. There are 348 people in the hospital with COVID-19, 191 of whom are in intensive care. The number of active cases across Ontario numbers 6,129.