Some students continue with online learning in Algoma
As a majority of students return to in-class learning this week, several parents with children attending public schools in Algoma District are opting for online instruction.
This comes as immunization rates for elementary and secondary students continue to climb.
Officials at Algoma District School Board said online learning will remain an option until Feb. 4 for elementary students and until the end of the current semester for high schoolers.
Board chair Jennifer Sarlo said a similar number of students in elementary and high school are learning from home.
"We have 9.7 per cent of our elementary students deciding to stay at home with virtual learning," said Sarlo.
"For our secondary students, we have just over 10 per cent -- 10.3 per cent -- of our secondary students have chosen virtual learning."
Sarlo said the board was able to procure masks and HEPA filters for schools in the days before reopening to in-class learning.
"Our plant department had to work pretty hard to get all that distributed throughout all our schools, but we're really thankful we were able to get that ahead of time," said Sarlo.
Algoma Public Health's director of immunization said more than half of students ages 5-17 have received their first COVID-19 vaccine dose.
"In Algoma, children aged five to 11 years old have a 54 per cent coverage rate for COVID-19 paediatric vaccination," said Roylene Bowden. "Those who are aged 12 to 17, we are at an 83 per cent coverage rate."
Bowden said the health unit may adopt a more targeted approach to vaccinations in schools.
"As we continue through and offer both appointment and walk-in clinic opportunities, we'll look at those coverage rates and take a more targeted approach to some of the schools that may need a little more on-site assistance with immunization coverage," she said.
Bowden said they are planning an immunization blitz to correspond with the Feb. 4 PD day. She said second doses of COVID-19 vaccine are expected to be administered to school-aged children starting this week.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
Concerns about plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall plexiglass barriers.
Canada's most wanted fugitive arrested in P.E.I. in connection with Toronto homicide
A suspect in a fatal shooting in Toronto’s east end last summer has been arrested in Charlottetown, just one week after he topped a list of Canada’s most wanted fugitives.
OPP officer said 'someone's going to get hurt' before wrong-way Hwy. 401 crash
As multiple Durham police cruisers were chasing a robbery suspect on the wrong side of Highway 401 Monday night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer shared his concerns, telling a dispatcher, "Someone's going to get hurt."
Poilievre returns to House unrepentant for calling Trudeau 'wacko,' Speaker not resigning
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Toddler of Phoenix first responder dies after bounce house goes airborne
A two-year-old child died after a strong gust of wind sent the bounce house he was in airborne and into a neighbouring lot in central Arizona, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office said.
Plane overshoots runway at airport in St. John's, N.L., no injuries reported
Investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada are headed to St. John's, N.L., after a plane overshot a runway at the city's airport this afternoon.
A teen was found buried in a basement in New York. An engraved ring helped police learn her identity two decades later
For more than two decades, the unknown victim was nicknamed "Midtown Jane Doe" because she was found in the Hell's Kitchen neighbourhood of New York City. But this week, investigators finally revealed her identity.