A Mi’kmaw community in Cape Breton has canceled classes because of a spike in COVID-19 cases and not enough staff.
Students and staff at the Membertou elementary and middle school stayed home Thursday, as the province declared a sixth wave of COVID-19 in Nova Scotia.
“We only have about 14 teachers on our staff,” said director of education Darren Googoo. “And about half of them right now are out for one reason or another, so as a result we can’t staff our classrooms.”
It’s the second Mi’kmaw community on the island to close schools because of the virus.
Eskasoni First Nation shutdown March 30 for two weeks, after reporting its highest number of active cases to date.
“We have enough staff now to operate our school again, the bus drivers, janitors, everybody,” said Eskasoni First Nation Chief Leroy Denny. “So that’s a good thing.”
Nova Scotia Health released its weekly COVID-19 numbers Thursday for the six-day period ending April 11.
More than 6,900 positive PCR tests were performed at the lab, with 72 new hospital admissions due to the virus, and 14 people have died.
“Canada is in a sixth wave and we’re no different here in Nova Scotia,” said Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Robert Strang. “Case numbers have been high for the last few weeks and it’s certainly an indication that the pandemic is not over.”
Strang was asked repeatedly Thursday during media availability why masks are not mandatory in the province as cases arise.
“I can’t comment on the decision that’s been made by the elected government on removing the mandate, but a very clear recommendation from myself and public health is that people continue to wear masks,” said Strang.
Back in Membertou, Googoo says classrooms were more than half empty this week.
“For us, we need a mini circuit breaker in order to give our staff time to recover,” said Googoo. “We also didn’t want to be in a situation where we’re asking parents to keep their kids home on a day-to-day basis.”
He says most of the staff should be recovered in a couple of days. The plan is to have students back in the classroom on Tuesday if everything goes as planned.