N.L. alert level update expected today, as students prepare to return to classrooms

On the eve of grade-school students returning to classrooms for the first time in 2022, the government of Newfoundland and Labrador is expected to provide an update on the province's alert level status.

Last Monday, Health Minister John Haggie said epidemiology dictated the government's decision to extend Alert Level 4 of its tiered pandemic health measures another week, with another reassessment coming today.

Newfoundland and Labrador has been in Alert Level 4 since Jan. 4, after cases began spiking in every region of the province during the holidays.

Haggie also said last week the question of reopening schools would be prioritized over a decision to change alert levels.

"I think there will be a move to do that first. And it may be, given the epidemiology, that we take it in a very slow and steady pace," he said Jan. 17.

On Thursday, the province announced schools will reopen to in-class instruction Tuesday.

Newfoundland and Labrador English School District CEO Tony Stack said Monday the district will be emphasizing standard safety practices, including handwashing, encouraging students and staff to stay home when they're sick, maintaining physical distance when possibility and disinfecting surfaces.

"The biggest difference … is renewed emphasis on the masking and a slight change in that the recommendation is for three-layered masks," Stack told CBC News on Monday morning. "The mask is the key protective feature going forward."

Stack said there is special consideration for completely virtual schooling for students who are immunocompromised. He said 29 students have been enrolled in that since September — 20 students from kindergarten to Grade 9 and nine high school students. 

He said those circumstances are very rare, and those students have documented situations signed off by a specialist.

"There is a limited number, a finite number, of individuals that we can put into the role of teaching students in situations such as that," Stack said. "If we were going to increase it through any means we'd have to do so based on our existing resources."

As of Sunday, the province's known active COVID-19 caseload was 2,656.

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