A week into the in-person start, Omicron is forcing a slew of students to self-isolate at home. According to preliminary data released Tuesday, more than 2% of them are absent from the network due to COVID-19.
On Monday, the Minister of Education, Jean-François Roberge, had indicated that “very, very few” – or no – classes had to close since the return of young people to classes at the start of last week. In fact, only one class was considered to be in “breakage of service” at the end of the week, reveal the “preliminary data” published Tuesday by the minister.
Here is the preliminary data related to closed classes and schools as well as absenteeism rates (students and staff). To date, we are doing better than Ontario. Congratulations to everybody. Regularly, we will make public the updates of this data as soon as possible. pic.twitter.com/L32IhszjQy
— Jean-F. Roberge (@jfrobergeQc) January 25, 2022
These statistics have not yet found their way onto government websites. The Minister’s press attaché, Florent Tanlet, assures us that it will be possible “soon” to know how often they will be published. Mr. Roberge affirms that they will be “regularly”.
Since Monday, the Ontario neighbor has published a regular update of the absenteeism rate in its schools. Last I heard, eleven schools had to close due to COVID-19.
In Quebec, the number of closed or “partially closed” establishments rose to three on Friday.
In the midst of a shortage of school staff, around 1.6% of school staff are confined to their homes, according to ministry data. More than 90 classes are teaching remotely, and almost 700 teachers have to do their job in front of a screen.
Minister Roberge describes the return to winter in person as a “great success”. On Tuesday, as his premier tends to do, he rejoiced to do “better than Ontario” since returning to class.
Quebec relaxed isolation guidelines in schools last week. It is now necessary that 60% of the students in a class test positive for it to switch to distance learning.