Elmira elementary school reports COVID-19 case in student
3rd school in Waterloo region to report case of coronavirus
A student at Riverside Public School in Elmira has tested positive for COVID-19, the Waterloo Region District School Board says.
The student was last in the building on Friday, the board said in a statement posted to its website on Sunday.
The school is being cleaned and it's expected staff and students will be able to return on Monday morning.
Public health will follow up with anyone who is considered to be a high risk contact, the board said.
The case is the third one in a school in Waterloo region. There is also a student case at St. Anne Catholic Elementary School in Cambridge and a staff member at Edna Staebler Public School in Waterloo tested positive for the virus.
While a single case is considered an outbreak in a long-term care facility, that isn't the case in schools.
An outbreak is declared in a school when there are two or more lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases among students and/or staff in a school within a 14-day period so long as the cases appear to have "an epidemiological link." That could mean the people involved are in the same class, the same after-school care group or the same school bus.
An entire school may also be shut down if the local public health unit finds evidence of "potential widespread transmission," such as a number of positive cases with no known source outside the school.
Over the weekend, an Ottawa elementary school became the first in the province to close due to COVID-19 concerns after two staff members and two students tested positive.