JAY -- In an Oct. 24 letter issued to parents, the Rainbow District School Board has confirmed a second case of COVID-19 linked to Lo-Ellen Park Secondary School.

This comes two-days after the board issued a letter reporting the school’s first positive case with students in two classes asked to immediately self-isolate until Nov. 5. 

“While the situation is evolving, Public Health has indicated that there is no evidence of transmission in the school at this time. Lo-Ellen Park Secondary School remains open,” said director of education, Norm Blaseg in the letter.

According to Dr. Penny Sutcliffe, medical officer of health for Public Health Sudbury & Districts, it is not believed that transmission occured within the school. 

“This is not an outbreak," said Dr. Sutcliffe in an interview Saturday with CTV News. "It is separate cases for whom we have good evidence that there was acquisition, so they were infected outside of the school setting. So the good news is that there’s no transmission or spread in the school.”

Blaseg says Public Health continues to investigate the situation and if any more risks to the school community are identified, they may direct additional measures.

CTV News has obtained a letter issued on Oct. 23 by Public Health Sudbury and Districts informing parents their child may have been exposed to COVID-19 if they were in the school's cafeteria on Oct. 20 and/or Oct. 21 between the hours of 10:50 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.

“Part of the public health responsibility in our investigation is to determine any venues in the school where there may have been risk of exposure," said Dr. Sutcliffe. "We determined that the cafeteria at the times and the dates that were noted were potential area of exposure. So those individuals were treated in the same way that the classrooms are.”

The Board declined our request for comment.

Public Health will directly contact all parents or guardians of students and all school personnel who have been identified as close contacts and reaffirms that "simply passing by an infected person in the hallway is not considered close contact, and the risk of spreading the virus is extremely low."

Dr. Sutcliffe said it's critical that everyone takes the public health precautions seriously. 

“We have seen tremendous outbreaks occur that have overwhelmed health care systems, public health, our businesses everywhere," said Dr. Sutcliffe. "So parents, encourage your kids; kids, make sure you take this seriously. Make it the norm, maybe make it fun, have a fun mask that you want to show off. So, really make it so that this is what you do and it’s kind of unusual to not do that.”

Updated information will be posted on the Board’s COVID-19 Advisory Section of the website.

If you have any questions regarding COVID-19 or the measures taken to address COVID-19 visit the website or contact Public Health Sudbury and Districts at 705.522.9200 ext. 524.