Class is going to look a little bit different Thursday for students at St. Joseph's Catholic High School in Windsor.
As heard on AM800 Wednesday, the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit declared an outbreak of COVID-19 after five positive cases were identified.
As a result, the school is closed until further notice and all students are being shifted to virtual learning.
Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board communications coordinator Stephen Fields says students who need devices for online learning can pick them up at the school.
"Any of the students who may not have a device of their own, we're letting them know that they can come by the school to pick up a device, especially for those ones who don't have devices at home where they can't do online learning," he continued. "We want to make sure that we're there to support our students so they continue learning while the school remains closed."
Fields says the health unit will be providing more direction in the coming days.
"Obviously, these people are the experts. They know what they're doing. So we followed that recommendation. We're in the business of learning to make sure the students continue learning while the school is closed and that's what we're doing. In terms of case management, we rely on the experts at the health unit to manage those cases," Fields said.
He says the goal is to get students back in the classroom as soon as possible.
"We want to get students back in the school as soon as we possibly can, but we're not going to rush that. We're going to wait to hear what the health unit has to say and as soon as we're able to welcome students back into the school we'll communicate with them directly and let them know when it's safe to return."
Fields adds that health unit staff were on hand for Wednesday's dismissal, which went as smoothly as it could have.
An outbreak is declared when two or more cases of COVID-19 are identified within a 14-day period.
The health unit is advising those who were in the building between September 7 and 9 to get tested.