2 suspected cases of omicron COVID-19 variant in Blind River

Two Blind River schools have switched to online learning due to two suspected cases of the omicron COVID-19 variant, Algoma Public Health has confirmed.

Dr. Jennifer Loo, the health unit's medical officer of health, said Blind River Public School and W. C. Eaket Secondary School closed due to staffing concerns, with the omicron variant possibly present in the community.

But Loo added cases in the community have not yet been tested in a laboratory to confirm with certainty whether or not they are the omicron variant.

"What we have seen are situations where we suspect the Omicron variant is present," she said.

Because the more contagious variant is suspected in Blind River, Loo said they are using a more aggressive approach to manage close contacts.

That means that regardless of vaccination status, any close contacts to a suspected COVID-19 case in the town must fully isolate for 10 days, and test negative after that period.

"These are some of the very stringent measures that are put into place as soon as we even suspect that omicron might be present," Loo said.

Lucia Reece, the Algoma District School Board's director of education, said due to those stricter precautions more teachers and staff members with both schools have had to self-isolate.

"So we just didn't have the amount of staff required to guarantee program safety and supervision in the buildings," she said.

Reece said they heard on Friday there had been a COVID-19 case at Blind River Public School, and heard from the health unit more students and staff would need to stay home as a result.

The Algoma region has seen a surge in COVID-19 cases in recent months.

Loo said that from March 2020 to October 2021, the region had about500 confirmed COVID-19 cases. But in November 2021 there are another 500 confirmed cases.

As of Sunday, Dec. 12 there were 268 active cases in the region.

Loo said it's still too early to know what impact the omicron variant might have on the local healthcare system.

"As of yet, we haven't seen that surge of hospitalizations but what we don't know is how people will fare with omicron if they are older and have underlying health conditions," she said.

"The science is always evolving and always changing."