More than 600 elementary and secondary students from across Windsor-Essex have already been dismissed from school due to confirmed COVID-19 cases.
Windsor-Essex County Health Unit CEO Nicole Dupuis admits the number of COVID-19 cases and students impacted is higher than anticipated.
She says says the health unit was prepared for the cases.
"We knew getting into schools, we were braced for a large impact and we wanted to be able to monitor the situation before we introduced other activities that will increase dismissals, increase exposure throughout the school," says Dupuis.
She says the health unit isn't surprised by the number of cases.
"I think the number and total of students so soon is maybe a little bit more than we anticipated but we were prepared and we did know that there would be quite a large impact," says Dupuis.
There are currently eight schools within the Greater Essex County District School Board dealing with COVID-19 cases and nine schools within the Windsor Essex Catholic District School board dealing with cases.
Elementary and secondary students returned to the classroom last Tuesday.