Twenty Lambton schools dealing with COVID-19 cases

Lambton Public Health says nearly 9,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in the county so far.

Public health started the roll out of the vaccine and over the past week, mass immunization clinics for seniors have been held in Wyoming, Point Edward and Forest.

Residents of all long term care and retirement homes have also received their first dose of the vaccine. They will be among the few people who will receive the second dose. Monday, public health received official word from the Ministry of Health to delay the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to four months after the initial dose.

At the mass vaccination clinics this weekend, seniors were still being booked for their second dose in April. Those will be rescheduled.

Lambton Public Health is also reporting 13 new cases of COVID-19 in the community and four more recoveries. There are also two new outbreaks, including another at a Sarnia School – Sacred Heart. One teacher and one student have tested positive. One classroom is also closed.

There are 20 schools in Lambton who are dealing with COVID-19. Every high school in the county has at least one case. In Corunna, all three elementary schools have cases including St. Joseph’s where two classrooms have been closed.

The Catholic elementary school in Watford – St. Peter Canisius also has two classrooms closed after four students tested positive for the virus.

Officials have also updated the statistics the province uses in the Reopening Framework. There are now 102 cases of COVID-19 for every 100,000 in Lambton and 3.1 per cent of the COVID-19 tests are positive.

Right now, Lambton is in the red-control zone. Communities with weekly incidence rates of 40 cases per 100,000 and a positivity rate of 2.5 per cent or more are placed.

There are no clear numbers on when communities move into the grey-lockdown zone but communities are moved back into lockdown when there are increasing cases in people over 70, the hospital and ICU risk being overwhelmed with patients or public health cannot keep up with contact tracing.

There are only four people with COVID-19 at Bluewater Health today.