All went well on the first day back to school for students at St. Joseph's Catholic High School.
That's according to Windsor-Essex County Health Unit CEO Nicole Dupuis who says, in an effort to get more students vaccinated against COVID-19, the health unit will be hosting a vaccination clinic at the school on Friday.
St. Joe's had been closed since September 16 after an outbreak was declared following the discovery of five positive cases of COVID-19 — students were then shifted to online learning.
Dupuis says getting vaccinated is the best way to stop the spread.
"Our message is get vaccinated. I know, in this case, there were students who were vaccinated, unvaccinated and all went for testing and were all sent home out of precaution to ensure that we could look and see if there was spread. When you have that many dismissals in one school our concern because is it bigger than we think it is."
Dupuis says youth vaccination rates are not where they should be.
"We're happy with the outcome here. It was a disruption, but not seeing widespread transmission is positive. That's a really good thing and I want to make sure that that's clear. What do we need to do? Get vaccinated. Our numbers are low, our overall coverage in youth is well below the province," Dupuis said,
She says only about half of eligible students have gotten their shot.
"For any school, you figure, one in two students are only vaccinated and we know the majority of our cases are amongst the unvaccinated. Certainly, also, with Delta, it's more transmissible. There's more severe outcomes. So those are the things we want to prevent from getting into the school."
Friday's vaccination clinic will see shots made available to anyone over the age of 12.
The health unit also hosted a COVID-19 testing clinic for students and staff at the school last week.