Manitoba delays return to school after winter break to Jan. 10

Students in Manitoba won't be back in the classroom until at least Jan. 10 after the province announced it's extending the winter break to give public health officials more time to assess the effect of the Omicron variant.

But it's still too early to tell what that return to school will look like, including whether the break will be extended even more or whether classes will shift to remote learning in the new year, Education Minister Cliff Cullen said.

"We've been down this road before, quite frankly. We've had to prepare for different avenues," Cullen saidat Wednesday news conference viaZoom.

"We're going to try to provide as much information as soon as possible to parents and students so they can be prepared for what we hope will be a safe return to school in January."

Most students were scheduled to go back to class on Jan. 6, a Thursday. Pushing the first day back up to the following Monday will give officials an extra four daysto see what changes might be needed, he said.

"The thought was, if we can even buy ourselves a couple of days [and]close off that week, we'll have an opportunity over the next few weeks to assess where we're at," he said, adding that information is still emerging about how the new variant of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 might affect Manitoba.

"It's an animal that we don't really know what we're up against. I think this is a start to buy us a little more time."

School staff will still return on Jan. 6 for professional learning and preparation.Many child-care centres will remain open for kids under 12 to ensure families can continue to access those services, Cullen said.

The delay will also allow more time for rapid COVID-19 tests to be distributed to schools across the province for students from kindergarten to Grade 6, he said.

So far, northern and First Nations communities and 17 of Manitoba's school divisions have gotten the tests, as supply continues to roll in.

Cullen said he expects all the province's remaining divisionsto get theirs by the time classes are scheduled to resume.

The update comes onthe last day of classes before the break for most schools in Manitoba.

Extension notlong enough: advocate

One Winnipeg teacher says she'srelieved to see the province take action to get ahead of a possible jump in infections as people gather for the holidays in the coming weeks.

But Nicole Lafrenire isn't sure it goes far enough, asthe more contagious Omicron variant takes hold.

As of Wednesday,Manitoba has reported 18cases of that strain which some early data out of Hong Kong suggests multiplies 70 times faster than either the original SARS-CoV-2 or the Delta variant of the coronavirus. Global numbers suggest Omicron may have a doubling time of 1.5 to threedays.

Lafrenire, who teaches music at cole Guyot in southeast Winnipeg, said some teachers are concerned the four extra days of winter break won't be long enough for people to start displaying symptoms. That means people who contract the virus may notknow they're sick before coming back to school.

"We are worried about, once Jan. 10 rolls around, how many children and adults are going to be infected or carrying Omicron or the other variants and they won't have had time to get tested," she said.

"Ten days is really not enough after Jan. 1, after all the visiting."

Lafrenire is also part of Safe September Manitoba, an advocacy group that's been lobbying the government to take steps to make schools safer for students and staff throughout the pandemic.

She said on top of its issues with the extended winter break, the group doesn't think Manitoba's latest set of restrictions go far enough to make sure schools can run safely in the new year. She'd like to see changes to the current level on the province's pandemic response system.

"If we really want schools to stay open once the holidays are over, we should be in code red right now [at] the community level and the schools be at minimum in code orange in January," Lafreniresaid.

Outbreaks at 4 Winnipeg schools

Earlier Wednesday, Manitoba reported COVID-19 outbreaks at four schools in Winnipeg.

Those outbreaks have been declared atWestview School (Grades 1/2),coleMargaret Underhill (Grade 1),Faith Academy Middle School andcole Regent Park (class 4B).

More details about how many cases have been linked to each of those schools are available on the province's website.

The province also reported Tuesday that the number of COVID-19 cases that have been linked to schools since classes started in September rose to 2,268.

That'san increase of 197 since the previous update last Thursday. Most of the new cases 166 were among students, while 31 were among staff.

The next update on school-linked cases is expected thisThursday.

Manitoba delays return to school after winter break to Jan. 10

3 years ago

Duration 2:02

Students in Manitoba won't be back in the classroom until at least Jan. 10 after the province announced it's extending the winter break to give public health officials more time to assess the effect of the Omicron variant.