Education, health leaders to speak about COVID-19 tracing in Manitoba schools at 3 p.m. CT
CBC
As Manitoba students prepare to head back into classrooms next week, amid a surge in COVID-19 cases driven by the Omicron variant, education leaders and the province's public health chief are set to speak this afternoon about contact tracing in schools.
Education Minister Cliff Cullen, Chief Provincial Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin and deputy education minister Dana Rudy will speak at a news conference on Zoom at 3 p.m. CT. CBC News will stream the news conference live.
This comes as students are about to wrap up a one-week period of remote learning, meant to give new infections over the holidays time to develop symptoms.
Schools have been giving out rapid antigen tests to families that wanted them, with the hope of catching any cases that haven't yet shown symptoms before they come to class.
It follows Premier Heather Stefanson's announcement Wednesday that people in Manitoba must "learn to live with" the coronavirus, and that the province would be shifting its focus away from trying to prevent its spread.
Acting Deputy Chief Provincial Public Health Officer Dr. Jazz Atwal said it was "highly likely" that everyone in the province would be exposed to the virus in the coming weeks.
As of Wednesday, a total of 63,247 first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been given to children ages five to 11, or 50.6 per cent of that age group.
P.E.I.'s Public Schools Branch is looking for 50 substitute bus drivers, and it'll be recruiting at three job fairs on Saturday, June 8. The job fairs are located at the Atlantic Superstore in Montague, Royalty Crossing in Charlottetown, and the bus parking lot of Three Oaks Senior High in Summerside. All three run from 9 a.m. until noon. Dave Gillis, the director of transportation and risk management for the Public Schools Branch, said the number of substitute drivers they're hiring isn't unusual. "We are always looking for more. Our drivers tend to have an older demographic," he said.