COVID-19

It wasn’t the answer they were hoping for, but staff and leadership with the Kenora Catholic District School Board are prepared for the continuation of virtual learning across the province.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced students will continue learning virtually to finish off the 2020-2021 school year on June 2, saying Ontario’s modelling shows returning students to schools could lead to ‘thousands’ of new COVID-19 cases each day; a risk Ford says he isn’t willing to take.

The Kenora Catholic District School Board has decided to cancel exams at St. Thomas Aquinas High School for the final quadmester of the year.

The decision comes as other school boards across the province made moves to cancel exams in an effort to help the mental health of students.

"This was decided to reduce the amount of stress and anxiety on our students, especially during the already stressful time that they have," said Paul White, Director of Education at the Kenora Catholic District School Board.

The Justice Minister says while he is seeing issues with churches not following the health orders, alongside them others are stepping up.

In the fall of 2020, Minister Cameron Friesen asked Christians to "be the church." Seven months later, he says the vast majority have been advocating for and following the Public Health Orders, with some exceptions.

There were 410 new COVID-19  cases reported in the past 24 hours with a positivity rate of 4.9%.

Hospitalizations dropped by three to 435 and there are 122 in ICU, which is less than yesterday.

Sadly, three more deaths were reported bringing the total in the province to 2,231.

There are 6,305 active cases in the province, 66 of those cases are in Rocky View County, and 20 are in Cochrane.

To date, 2.8 million doses of vaccine have been administered, 64% of the population has received a single dose while 10.7 % of Albertans are fully immunized.

In the City of Grande Prairie, six new COVID-19 cases were reported today (June 2), and 14 people recovered. Another death was reported today as well. It was a woman in her 50s who passed away on May 25. There are no known comorbidities connected to the case. The active total is 72 with 3,772 recoveries and 27 deaths.  

In the County of Grande Prairie, five new cases were added, and five people recovered. There are now 53 active cases and 1323 recoveries. 

Peace Region totals: 

A heatwave that is lingering in the province is resulting in the temporarily loosening of some COVID-19 restrictions.

Outdoor pools or splash pads at hotels, campgrounds and other private businesses can open, starting at 2 p.m. Wednesday.

"With the current forecast, municipalities will be temporarily permitted to repurpose facilities such as libraries and community centres as cooling centres for vulnerable people who may not otherwise have means to cool off during heat waves," the province says in a statement.

Commuter Challenge Week is looking different the second time around since the pandemic, but the organization is still encouraging families to be active. 

Kathryn Winkler is the National Coordinator for Commuter Challenge. Across Canada this year Commuter Challenge Week runs from May 31 until June 4.

The province is continuing to see a trend of lowering COVID-19 cases overall alongside high levels of the varients of concern.

Remote learning will continue to finish off the 2020-2021 school year for both elementary and secondary school students.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says modelling shows returning students to their classrooms this month could lead to thousands of new COVID-19 cases each day; a risk Ford isn’t willing to take.

“Schools will not be returning to in-class learning until the fall. I know this is very difficult news. It was a hard choice to make. But I will not take unnecessary risks with our children. We are fighting a third wave driven by COVID-19 variants.”

Three walk-in COVID-19 vaccine clinics are being held today in the Northwestern Health Unit’s catchment area.

Kenora’s clinic will be held at the Recreation Centre, Dryden’s is being held at the Memorial Arena and Rainy Rivers’ is at the Rainy River Highschool. The three clinics will run from 1 p.m. until 6:30 p.m.