Despite some anxiety, it's so far so good for back to school in the N.W.T., says top education official

After a handful of days into an unprecedented school year, a top education official in the Northwest Territories says he's pleased with the progress so far, despite some expected anxiety while adjusting to the new normal.

The territory's assistant deputy minister of Education, Culture and Employment says it's understandable, as students, parents and teachers learn new routines.

"There have been, as you can imagine, situations where just due to anxiety in some cases, rumours, gossip, things of that nature, where we've had to look into circumstances and refer matters to our colleagues, the Chief Public Health Officer's office, and in relation to enforcement with Protect NWT," said John MacDonald during a media briefing Wednesday.

"But what we're finding is generally a lot of that is based on rumours or maybe a lack of understanding so it's been more of a communications effort more than anything else so I have to say we're very pleased."

1 case won't necessarily shut down a school

In the event that a student or teacher comes down with a case, shutting a school down won't necessarily be required, says the N.W.T.'s Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Kami Kandola.

"Shutting a school down is a very serious public health decision and the impact, it is not just about preventing COVID[-19] transmission, but the unintended consequences — learning, mental health and a whole host of other issues that would need to be considered before we would ever close down the school," Kandola said during the briefing.

She says she is keeping a close eye on what happens over the next two to four weeks across the country as kids return to class and more people go back to the office. That will help determine the risk of importation, she said.

She also noted the territory is moving past its anticipated travel peak for the summer. The number of isolation plans submitted to Protect NWT is down slightly to around 750, with about half of those for returning residents.

With outbreaks and active cases on the rise in Western Canada, Kandola cautioned the territory must remain vigilant, including taking self-isolation seriously.

"We could be living with it for another year, hopefully not two, and so the top priority is our ability to do rapid testing, our ability to do mass surveillance and quick, contact tracing. If we can have that in place, we could have the ability to continue to be as open as we can, try to be as normal as we can," she said.

"But we need to have the ability to quickly identify a case, isolate and do the contact tracing."

2 more tickets issued

Separately, the territory continues to hand out tickets to people violating self-isolation rules. Two more tickets were issued last week to N.W.T. residents for failing to follow self-isolation rules, bringing the total number to 18.

One ticket was issued in the North Slave region while the other was handed out in the South Slave region.