COVID-19 case confirmed at Winnipeg's Churchill High School, health officials say

A case of COVID-19 has been confirmed at a Winnipeg high school, Manitoba public health officials said Wednesday evening.

The Grade 7 student was in class at Winnipeg's Churchill High School on Tuesday, and used Winnipeg Transit while asymptomatic, the province said in a news release.

The student, inRoom 20 at the Riverview-area school, was among the COVID-19 cases identified earlier in the day Wednesday, the release said.

The student was in school between8 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday and took the No. 16 busjust after 7:50 a.m. that day, boarding at Graham Avenueand Vaughan Street, according to the province's list of flights and events with confirmed cases.

Officials say the risk is low because physical distancing was maintained while the student was at school, and the student wore a mask while in school and on the bus.

Public health investigators don't believe the student caught the virus at school.

There are no close contacts connected with the case, and health officials have not advised anyone toself-isolate, but others who were at the school or on the bus with the student shouldself-monitor for symptoms of COVID-19,the province says.

The school and cohort werenotified Wednesday in a letter sent by the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority. Officials say cleaning is being doneout of an abundance of caution.

The school will be open for classes Thursday, according to Radean Carter, the senior information officer for the Winnipeg School Division, which Churchill High School falls under.

"We are mobilizing our sanitization unit, which will go to the school overnight and make sure that it's fogged. The classroom where the student was attending just for a couple of hours yesterday will be fogged just to add that extra level of security for both us and our staff and students," she said in an interview with CBC News.

The bus the student took to school was also cleaned after Winnipeg Transit was made aware of the potential exposure, according to a news release issued by the City of Winnipeg on Wednesday evening.

"All employees who have been identified as having been in contact with the bus following the potential exposure have been contacted, and appropriate follow-up measures are being taken," the release said.

Churchill High School is not being elevated underthe province's colour-coded pandemic response system, given the low risk and lack of close contacts, the provincialrelease said. All schools in province remain at the yellow, or "caution," level.