Yorkton high school going to remote learning after jump in COVID cases

As COVID-19 cases are rising in Saskatchewan, schools are starting to feel it.

On Monday, Yorkton Regional High School sent out a letter to staff and families announcing all grades at the school would be going to remote learning due to the “large number of positive cases reported.”

The letter said an outbreak had been declared for the school. On Tuesday morning, the Saskatchewan Health Authority’s website only listed one case in the facility with a population of 790 but those numbers hadn’t been updated since Jan. 5.

“The decision was made with good intentions in mind…to keep students and staff safe and healthy,” read the letter.

Classes were cancelled for Tuesday and remote learning would begin Wednesday. The plan was to have students back in class on Jan. 24, though the letter warned that was tentative and to be reviewed on Jan. 21.

Extra-curricular activities are being paused as well, their return is to be decided the Friday before in-person learning is set to begin.

The school division said in the letter that attendance would be taken at the beginning of each class and that if a student can’t attend the virtual class then the absence would be reported as normal.

Cases in other schools

According to a news release on Monday from the Prairie Valley School Division, between Sept. 1 and Dec. 19, 2021, there were 144 confirmed cases within the division. A distinction was made in the news release that these cases were reported to the division by the health authority through PCR testing.

In comparison, between Jan. 3 and 9 last week, there were 98 cases reported in the division, impacting 27 schools — that’s about two-thirds of the cases reported in the first part of the school year in 2021. The division points out that these cases were reported by parents, guardians and staff from rapid tests.

The totals are still only a fraction of the population of the division. Prairie Valley School Division has about 8,500 students in 39 schools.